I wonder who Paul Krugman is making fun of here (via):
I’m in Iceland for this IMF-sponsored conference; they say it will be webcast live, but no link yet — probably it will be on the conference page, as linked above.
What I’ve learned so far: daybreak is really late here this time of year! But the sun is finally out, so soon I’ll get out and about, and
find a wise taxi driver to explain everythingwalk around and probably learn nothing, since I’m mainly a numbers guy.
Update. In Soviet Iceland, wise taxi driver find you.
GregB
Leave Tom Scion of Real Estate Moguls Friedman alone!
General Stuck
Mou
BGinCHI
Understanding, thy name is Mustache.
I hear you can also find a pot of Friedman at the end of every rainbow.
nitpicker
In Iceland, it’s the fishermen that are full of wisdom.
And vodka.
PeakVT
Heh. Friedman doesn’t read the NYT, though. I mean, look at his columns…
JGabriel
@nitpicker:
Can they afford vodka? I thought Iceland had really high alcohol taxes to combat alcoholism.
(DougJ, thanks for the via.)
.
DougJ
@JGabriel:
You deserve it, good catch.
Warren Terra
@GregB:
fixt.
(And: did their real estate empire survive the real-estate bubble? I thought they were leveraged and exposed, and at least initially looked to be down 95%, albeit from a billion or more).
Librarian
The thing is, Friedman is so fucking clueless that if he read that, he’d probably wouldn’t get the reference.
PeakVT
@Warren Terra: It went BK.
Spaghetti Lee
Man, Krugman’s a badass. Who else out there calls their coworkers morons in print basically every single day and doesn’t get fired for it? Not that the coworkers don’t deserve it. Maybe he just has some very compromising photos of Pinch Sulzburger and Bill Keller.
Suffern ACE
@JGabriel: I believe they are full of brennivin. Avoid those taxes by making your own. Puts hair on your chest, or removes it, depending on the situation.
JWL
Krugman’s dig reminds me of one of the final Budweiser commercials featuring the late, great Louie the Frog.
The advertising company, having undoubtedly gotten word their ad campaign would not be renewed, had Louie poke good natured fun at Bud’s founder.
At which point Louie’s sidekick said, “Ah, Louie, you’re bucking for a pink slip”.
fasteddie9318
@BGinCHI:
I’m pretty sure that proverb goes “You can find a pot of Friedman at the bottom of every septic tank.”
Violet
Krugman probably won’t tell the Icelanders to “suck on this.” Some NYT columnist he is.
BGinCHI
@fasteddie9318: It is true that we measure our bowel movements around Chez BG in Friedman Units.
burnspbesq
I love our House of Representatives.
They just passed a hot little number called H.R. 2594, the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme Prohibition Act of 2011. This legislation, if it clears the Senate and is signed by the Mooslim Atheist Usurper, will prohibit U.S. airlines from purchasing carbon emissions permits under the EU emissions trading scheme, which covers airlines effective 1/1/12.
Without permits, airlines will have to curtail their carbon emissions by at least 15 percent. Which would logically seem to mean that would have to cut back their operations by 15 percent (or pay huge amounts of money to their competitors to jump to the head of the line for delivery of new, fuel-efficient aircraft).
What was that about job-killing regulations?
Villago Delenda Est
@Librarian:
Without a doubt. Unless there’s some hack (in the slang for taxi driver, not shitty pundit, sense of the word, preferably with a heavy Mumbai accent) around to explain the joke to him.
What a fucking doofus he is. The Village: where merit means your daddy was the Dark Lord’s principle fluffer.
burnspbesq
@Villago Delenda Est:
Spel check is ur principal frend.
Calouste
@burnspbesq:
Free market and small government at work there I see.
ETA: I wouldn’t be surprised if in the same bill there is a rider that abolishes the law under which American companies can be prosecuted for paying bribes in foreign countries.
Nellie in NZ
Since we’re dumping on Friedman again, I don’t want anyone to miss his snotty little tantrum on NZ National Radio last week. He is on the at the 8:15 or so mark – it’s clearly identified. Such condescension all wrapped in one illogical package. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday
slag
Speaking of wankers who don’t incorporate real data into their thought processes…the guys from Planet Money. In spite of my typical anti-NPR jihad, I downloaded a couple of their podcasts pursuant to some recommendations here. Bad idea. I might as well pick up a Tom Friedman audiobook while I’m at it.
Jenny
Yet krugman and Friedman make such a cute couple.
http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Obama+Speaks+White+House+Forum+Jobs+Economic+aqt91Jr1Ay6l.jpg
Jenny
@Spaghetti Lee:
Maybe it’s because of his support for NAFTA, PNTR, repealing Glass-Steagall, bailing out Wall Street, and his opposition to breaking up banks-too-big-too-fail.
Yes, he’s a Keynesian, yes his mouths populist incantations, but on issue after issue, he sides with the Times’ advertisers.
Warren Terra
@Jenny:
Oh f’gawds sake. Go find someone pure and doctrinaire enough, and comment at their place willya?
Jenny
@Warren Terra: I can’t think of any economic policy difference btwn Friedman and Krugman, can you? Yet in terms of economic policy, people perceive them to be in different camps — they’re not.
Spaghetti Lee
@Jenny:
Oh my God, two influential editorial writers at the same media event! The fix is in!
I don’t know what Friedman’s economic positions are because he doesn’t write about economics, he writes about platitudes. I like Krugman. I think he’s a smart guy. No, I don’t agree with him on everything. The fact that he used to be more of a centrist is common knowledge, but times have changed.
AA+ Bonds
I’m so happy when he does this, and also when he flirts with the MMTists, that’s the best
AA+ Bonds
Paul Krugman is a guy who knows how to piss off losers
AA+ Bonds
KRUGFACT #12: Paul is on THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL PAGE, but ACTUALLY WRITES A COLUMN instead of JUST MAKING SHIT UP THAT NEVER HAPPENED. Scientists have deemed this “unnecessary.”
Cliff in NH
is likely is a response to This:
http://www.vox.crooksandliars.com/john-amato/new-york-cabbie-supports-ows
burnspbesq
@Jenny:
“I can’t think of any economic policy difference btwn Friedman and Krugman”
That has to be snark, because no actual thinking person could believe that.
Cliff in NH
@Jenny:
Prove it.
Cliff in NH
@Jenny:
Gimme links for all those claims.
Got Facts?
Yutsano
@Cliff in NH: Backing up shit on BJ? What kind of an outfit do you think this is?
Samara Morgan
/yawn
how ’bout chu get back to us when K-thug realizes its just the invisible hand of the “freed” market that has been fisting us all these years?
Samara Morgan
@Jenny: agreed.
they both “freed” market fans, and advocates of Dead White Male Phailosophy.
the only difference is which DWM they cite at the time.
in case you havent got the message yet, lotsa BJers are “freed” market fans too, and often spout DWM quotes.
:)
JGabriel
@Jenny:
Jenny, I’ve been reading Krugman’s columns since he started writing for the Times in the late 90’s, and I remember that, in the aftermath of the 2008 crash, Krugman specifically called for nationalization of the worst bank offenders, and re-privatizing them after the shareholders were cleaned out and the books were cleaned up, including breaking up those banks if that was best.
So I think you’re wrong on that. I seem to remember he was also against repealing Glass-Steagall at the time, but I’d have to research that to be sure. Nationalizing the banks is a more recent position, so I remember that pretty clearly.
.
EconWatcher
Friedman must work somewhere near my office in DC, because I see him on the street all the time. I’ve often thought of saying something to him, but never thought of the right thing to say. I’m open to suggestions. But keep it clean!
dr. bloor
@EconWatcher:
I suppose just walking up to him and kicking him in the junk fails the “keep it clean” standard.
bjacques
@dr. bloor:
But if you do it while shouting “What’s the frequency, Tommy!!??” I guarantee it will make the news.
El Cid
Anyone else see Rachel Maddow calling Tom Friedman a lying propagandist to his face on Bill Maher’s show? It was pretty interesting, for those who noted it, in her discussion of how given the different media environment there couldn’t be the same fraud persuading us to go to war as in Iraq — ‘you couldn’t persuade us any more,’ she said to the Mustache of Understanding seated directly to her right.
He said nothing and just quietly nodded and stared forward.
Perhaps there is the tinge of guilt, or just a subject he’d rather not get into, or he never imagined being called a lying hack propagandist (in so many words) to his face instead of recognized as the lordly sage so many treat him as.
handsmile
@EconWatcher: (#39)
This may not meet your reasonable standard of clean, but….You could hand him a “We Are the 99%” button (which have begun to appear on the streets of NYC at least) and say “Suck on this!”
El Cid (#42): Thanks for the tip! I’ll hunt for it through the intertubes.
daveNYC
@EconWatcher: “Aren’t you Paul Krugman?” followed by a request for an autograph would probably work.
Bill Murray
Krugman mostly supported NAFTA back when it was passed — http://www.pkarchive.org/trade/ForeignPolicyStupid.html, although I think, since his analysis proved wrong, he has changed his mind.
he definitely supported PNTR with China http://www.pkarchive.org/column/51000.html
Couldn’t find anything on Glass Steagall from the time
Paul in KY
@JGabriel: Friend of mine visited there once about 20 years ago. Said 10 year old kids would be getting blitzed all the time.
Paul in KY
@EconWatcher: How about: “Why don’t you stop carrying water for your wife’s class & actually write a column that might apply to the 99%, shitwipe”. (actually, you can leave off the ‘shitwipe’)
Paul in KY
@daveNYC: That would be good. Wait until he signs it, say ‘Gee, thanks, Mr. Krugman’ & look at signature. When he IDs as Friedman, make a face like you just stepped in shit, crumple up the paper & chuck it at him.
God, that would be fun!
Djur
Krugman is much less neoliberal than he was in the ’90s and early ’00s. This is something he has discussed openly in the past. And yes, he was more or less the only mainstream-visible advocate of nationalizing the banks during the financial crisis. I’m sure he believes the bailout as administered was better than doing nothing at all, because he’s not a wild-eyed nutjob.