Will the NYT Fire Paul Krugman?

Highly unlikely. But the Grande Nobeliste has shown himself a prize jerk and something of, well, not exactly a racist, more of a “countryist,” in his dopey defensive commentary about Estonia (apparently an economic success story). The president of that country has struck back on Twitter, with amusing bite. No word so far from cowardly Krugman. The Corner has the story:

It’s not quite Keynes v. Hayek, but Paul Krugman, no stranger to macroeconomic melees, has now set off a world leader, the president of Estonia. In a blog item this morning, Krugman criticized those who claim that Estonia is proof that austerity can work. He describes their situation as “a terrible — Depression-level — slump, followed by a significant but still incomplete recovery. Better than no recovery at all, obviously — but this is what passes for economic triumph?”

This afternoon, Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves took to Twitter to castigate Krugman for his criticisms:

There are more amusing Tweets from the Estonian president at the link.