En av republikanernas absolut främsta hatobjekt på tidningen som är deras mest hatade tilldelas i år Nobels ekonomipris. Paul Krugman heter han och bloggar om USA-valet (Conscience of a Liberal) och den finansiella krisen i New York Times.
Krugman tilldelas priset ”för hans analys av handelsmönster och lokalisering av ekonomisk verksamhet”.
Han har varit en hård kritiker av republikanernas ekonomiska politik och Bush. I primärvalen i våras var han också ofta hård i sin kritik mot Obamas förslag tex inom sjukvårdsreformer och ekonomiska reformer. Krugman stod uppenbarligen närmare Hillary Clintons idéer.
Mot McCain har Krugman varit extra hård nu under den finansiella krisen. ”McCain is more frightening now than he was a few weeks ago”. McCains erkänt dåliga kunskap i ekonomi har han älskat att ta upp:
In fact, recent statements by the candidates and their surrogates about the economy are quite revealing.
Take, for example, John McCain’s admission that economics isn’t his thing. “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should,” he says. “I’ve got Greenspan’s book.”
His self-deprecating humor is attractive, as always. But shouldn’t we worry about a candidate who’s so out of touch that he regards Mr. Bubble, the man who refused to regulate subprime lending and assured us that there was at most some “froth” in the housing market, as a source of sage advice?
Paul Krugman i NY Times den 14 januari, 2008
I samma artikel öser han beröm över Hillary Clinton:
And you have to say that Mrs. Clinton seems comfortable with and knowledgeable about economic policy. I’m sure the Hillary-haters will find some reason that’s a bad thing, but there’s something to be said for presidents who know what they’re talking about.
Och sågar Barack Obama:
The Obama campaign’s initial response to the latest wave of bad economic news was, I’m sorry to say, disreputable: Mr. Obama’s top economic adviser claimed that the long-term tax-cut plan the candidate announced months ago is just what we need to keep the slump from “morphing into a drastic decline in consumer spending.” Hmm: claiming that the candidate is all-seeing, and that a tax cut originally proposed for other reasons is also a recession-fighting measure — doesn’t that sound familiar?
Anyway, on Sunday Mr. Obama came out with a real stimulus plan. As was the case with his health care plan, which fell short of universal coverage, his stimulus proposal is similar to those of the other Democratic candidates, but tilted to the right.