Obama vs Krugman

I'm not sure how much it is apparent to people who read my blog, but I used to study business management and economics before getting into programming and systems development. I suspect that's partly why I tend to end up working on financial projects. My background my explain why I am still fairly interested in economics, and follow it somewhat closely, and why I'm a big fan of Paul Krugman.

Newsweek has a good profile of Paul Krugman and his relation to the Obama administration.

Obama’s Nobel Headache

Paul Krugman has emerged as Obama's toughest liberal critic. He's deeply skeptical of the bank bailout and pessimistic about the economy. Why the establishment worries he may be right.

There is not doubt that Obama and Krugman is on the same side, and that Krugman wants Obama to succeed. Krugman doesn't, however, think that Obama is going to do so with his current politics, and he is not afraid to say so.

If I was Obama, or the people in his administration, I would listen very carefully to what Krugman says. Looking back through the Bush years, it's noteworthy how correct Krugman has been especially on issues related to economics. He has made mistakes, and been wrong of course (no one has a perfect track record), but on the big issues I can't think of any time he has been seriously wrong. In other words, his opinions are not things one should easily dismiss.

If you don't read Krugman's NY Times op-ed pieces, you should start doing so. And if you don't read his blog, you should do so as well.