Just caught a profile of Paul Krugman on The PBS NewsHour. "Krugthulu" is attracting more and more attention these days from the media that had largely been dismissing him as a partisan lefty for years.
Unfortunately for the Very Serious People who inhabit the 'center' pushing the orthodoxy of Austerity and Deficit Doom, Krugman has the the unmitigated gall to keep being proved right while they proceed from disaster to disaster. Hence PBS deciding to give him some air time (without being outnumbered 3 to 1 or worse by doctrinaire conservabots) is a refreshing change.
There's no video up yet that I can find of the piece as it appeared on the NewsHour June 18 yet, but you can find part of it here, with the promise of more to come. (Of course, they have to fair-and-balance it with a long critique from a Peterson Institute hack...)
It's an interesting interview, interspersed with clips of Krugman on tour for his latest book, admirers, speaking engagements, and some attention to those who object to his views and call him a bully. Watching Krugman take all of this attention with a large grain of salt speaks volumes about how the economic debate has been turned into a form of combat. Krugman's thesis is simple.
We're in a depression now and we don't have to be. This isn't a recession that eases into recovery; we are in a sustained period of economic pain if we do nothing about it, or keep doing the wrong things. And the answers are there; Krugman's point is that we've run into this before and we have the answers in classic economic texts. But - it's as though an entire generation of economists and policy makers has never bothered to read them. It's not a problem of economics - our problem is political.
The paralysis preventing us from acting is based on a fear of deficits crippling our future - but as Krugman points out, this ignores the widespread damage being done NOW that is already hurting our future prospects, damage that will only get worse if we allow it to continue. To charges that he's a partisan and a bully, his reply is, paraphrasing, it's not his fault if the facts have a partisan bias.
There's a priceless moment towards the end of the NewsHour segment, where interviewer Paul Solman asks Krugman if we shouldn't be concerned about the deficit. Krugman says yes of course - but it's not the problem we should be worried about now. We should be putting people back to work; the time for cutting spending is when the economy is doing well again. And then Krugman goes there.
He comes flat out and says matter of factly, look the people screaming about the deficit now had no problem with George W. Bush cutting taxes without cutting spending or fighting two wars without funding them. As long as their man was in the White House, deficits didn't matter. Deficits only became important when they no longer held the White House. If Romney ends up in the White House and decides to cut taxes, those same people will suddenly find a reason why the deficit doesn't matter any more.
Solman practically fell off his chair in horror! "That's why people say you're so partisan!" You could see the shock in his face. Krugman shrugged - he's had a lot of practice getting used to this. If you want to understand what's wrong with so much of what passes for news coverage, that moment is priceless.
UPDATE: Here's the link to the 10 minute piece on Krugman. Enjoy! (And of course they have to put a joke headline on it, lest anyone take Krugman seriously...)