Monday, November 01, 2010

Morning Thread: Nobel Edition

by Molly Ivors

Here, have a couple of Nobel Prize winners to start your day. Krugman (Economics, 2008) quotes Yeats (Literature, 1923):
if you point out that their arguments don’t add up, they fly into a rage. Try to explain that when debtors spend less, the economy will be depressed unless somebody else spends more, and they call you a socialist. Try to explain why mortgage relief is better for America than foreclosing on homes that must be sold at a huge loss, and they start ranting like Mr. Santelli. No question about it: the moralizers are filled with a passionate intensity.

And those who should know better lack all conviction.