Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman has the Nobel Prize in economics, not an easy achievement. From Wikipedia, we learn the prize was given for Krugman's work explaining the patterns of international trade and the geographic concentration of wealth, by examining the effects of economies of scale and of consumer preferences for diverse goods and services.  This is hard to beat.  You cannot argue with the Nobel Prize, except possibly the Peace Prize. 

The Norwegians?  Being a descendent, even I question what are they thinking this nowadays. As a colleague in education recently stated, "What fruit is on the tree this week?"

From his own account, he is the 20th most widely cited economist in the world today and is ranked among the most influential academic thinkers in the USA.  He has written hundreds of articles on an array of topics.   This is impressive.

The prize in economics differs somewhat from the others, like physics, chemistry, and medicine, in that the awardees generally have created a model that fits extant data more-or-less correctly.  It is then generalized to the future, sans the model.  However, note that when such a model is created it profoundly affects the future, whose viewers take this into account to their own personal thinking, not to mention gain.  Basically, and perhaps a bit simplistic, if you have a model for making investments in stocks and it works, that is fine.  Make a bunch of money.  But if you publish it, the game changes.  The economic game is these days, partly econometrics, partly history, and partly political philosophy.  Opinion, logic, beliefs, intuition, and emotion are the rules of economics, now and always.  

Yet, in most cases, the work of a Nobel laureate, does change the game.  In the hard sciences, it refocuses and redirects research into new and possibly productive directions. 

You doubt this?  For every Keynsian, I can find at least one world renowned non-Keynsian.  For every supply-sider, I can find at least one world renowned non supply-sider. For every high taxation of the rich (ala Hollande in France) expert, I can find a low-taxation expert. Too many experts, each loaded with bushels of testimonials, each loaded with tons of data.   Powerlessness comes to mind. 

We live in an era of selected truths.  Watch the news - any channel you prefer.  You will see what they say; enjoy their comments, curse them, revile them.   Validate your own views.    To my mind, Krugman only examines a select points in the economic debate about which he makes his case.  Exactly this is the news model of our day.  

Krugman is the iconic representative of the Transference Effect, by which we mean that he transfers his unquestioned expertise in economics to whatever suits him at the moment.  See: http://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2012/10/transference-of-expertise.html.  He gains viewers and readers from all stripes; they listen to what he says with respectful obedience; they consider, reflect, and act upon his written word. My goodness, he publishes in the New York Times, wherein the motto is "All the News That's Fit to Print." What is better than that?

Professor Krugman, without the Nobel Prize, is just another, though prolific, liberal blogger.