The Gatekeeper: Adam Tooze On Paul Krugman’s Evolution

Snip from a Paul Krugman article from the 90s.

Adam Tooze has a nice essay on evolution on Paul Krugman’s views. It’s decent although I would critique much more if I were to write it.

There was one part which was quite amusing to me:

The hour and a half Krugman spent laying out his new trade theory at the National Bureau of Economic Research in July 1979 was, he later wrote, ‘the best ninety minutes of my life. There’s a corny scene in the movie Coal Miner’s Daughter in which the young Loretta Lynn performs for the first time in a noisy bar, and little by little everyone gets quiet and starts to listen to her singing. Well, that’s what it felt like: I had, all at once, made it.’

Imagine being so wrong but feeling this way.

Paul Krugman has shifted his views but it’s not as if he has changed for the better to benefit mankind. He is still doing whatever as an establishment hack, trying to preserve power for top corporations.