Krugman worked for Reagan?

[Doctor_J]

Whoa. He worked in the Reagan admin.

Edit - much better. Apologies, esp to Dr. Krugman, our most vocal spokesperson.

[ShaneGR]

1. Hehe, I was wondering how long it would take for someone to point that out

I guess I know now. How right you are.

[Cha]

2. That's hard to fathom! I would have thought Krugman would

have been a Dem all the way back!

[Doctor_J]

5. No shit

I read the Guardian article today about the death threats he's been getting. It stated clearly that he is "no left winger" and "worked in the Reagan administration".

SO I guess there is ONE Repub with integrity.

[Gloria]

3. I'm not so sure....he said he was one of many "recruited" and he

didn't exactly enjoy the experience. I can't remember which little niche he worked in...In fact, he told Charlie Rose that people shouldn't assume that people in the gov't offices dealing with economic issues know anymore than the average person!! That was 20 years ago...I wouldn't assume he's a Republican now. He probably isn't wedded to any one party...he's married to his economic beliefs more than anything else. He says he hasn't really changed them all that much over the years....

[priller]

25. Yeah, he was dismayed by the experience

He said, "The economic thinking at the highest levels of government was pretty low." He was shocked at how much politics intruded into economic and other policy decisions. And that was with Reagan, which was bad enough, but's 10x worse with Shrub.

[Cheswick2.0]

4. Krugman isn't running for President

so it doesn't matter in the same way it does with Clark. With clark it matters because it is important for us to know we can trust him to represent Democratic party values. If Clark is going to do that then he can prove it and we will all be happy with his candidacy. But he gets no free ride.........but good try.

[LittleDannySlowhorse]

10. As far as I'm concerned,

the fact that Krugman wrote "The Great Unraveling" is enough for me to forgive him his "youthful indiscretions."

[Kathy in Cambridge]

6. He worked in Reagan's admin but he's a Dem

He was soured by the economic policies of Reagan's staff economists. I am trying to find a link-will post when I do.

[Doctor_J]

9. OK

Thanks, that makes alot more sense. Also, HE makes alot more sense than any Repub I've ever encountered

[BurtWorm]

7. Krugman is not a Republican

He worked for Reagan's administration because a colleague asked him to. He wanted to work for Clinton's administration as well.

[Raenelle]

8. Was, not is. Things change. People change.

Especially over a couple of decades.

[roughsatori]

20. He WAS and IS a Democrat

Even if he had been a repuke, he is not running for president.

[scarletwoman]

11. Uh, that's a bit of a simplification -- verging on distortion

He spent a year on the STAFF of the Council of Economic Advisers early in the Reagan adminstration.

Here are the facts:

A Small Correction

SYNOPSIS: Krugman corrects the misconception that he was a member of Reagan's Council of Economic Advisors. He was on the Council's staff. This piece has some good personal anecdotes

I've now seen several pieces with a small misstatement about my career. For once it's not a malicious thing, just an error. But I'd like to correct it - and tell the slightly interesting story that goes with it.

The error is the statement that I was on Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers. I wasn't - I was on the Council's staff. That's a significant difference. Council members are political appointees; they are expected togive speeches defending the administration's policies, and so on. Staff positions are, in principle, civil service jobs. Admittedly, in practice the Council's staff tends to reflect the ideology of its bosses, except in special cases. And my time there was a peculiar special case. Here's the story.

In the summer of 1982 the Reaganites panicked: the US economy was in a tailspin, the Latin debt crisis was exploding, and they briefly worried about economic disaster. So they called in a moderate Republican with sterling credentials, Martin Feldstein, to head the CEA. Feldstein in turn decided that he wanted a team of whiz-kids, so he brought a group of Cambridge-based young people down with him. To lure his top picks, he created two "super-staff" positions: domestic and international policy economist. The domestic policy economist was a guy named Larry Summers; I wonder what happened to him? I was the international economist.

A funny story: we weren't on the White House payroll. For obscure political reasons, many White House staffers were paid by other agencies, then seconded to the WH. I got my paychecks from the Maritime Administration; Feldstein occasionally called me "midshipman".

Larry and I made no secret of the fact that we were Democrats. So why did I do it? Not for career purposes, at least not in the narrow sense: I already had tenure, and what I needed to rise in the academic world was more technical papers, not a behind-the-scenes role in Washington. (My academic reputation - and my Clark Medal - are the result of a baker's dozen of theoretical papers on international trade, currency speculation and crises, economic geography, and macroeconomics.) Mainly I thought it would be interesting - a chance to see how the alleged real world works. And it was. As it happened, the politics were not a problem: since my job required no public defense of the administration, it was all internal stuff; Feldstein was to my right, but to the left of almost everyone else in the administration, so I never found myself having to defend a position I didn't support.

http://www.pkarchive.org/personal/SmallCorrection.html

How about you check your facts first before you go off half-cocked?

sw

[Doctor_J]

14. Hey, I already was corrected

and submitted a mea culpa.

[scarletwoman]

18. I was busy FACT CHECKING, so I didn't see the correction until after

I posted.

And your new subject line is still misleading. He wasn't hired by the Reagan administration, he worked as a staff person DURING the Reagan administration, hired by a fellow economist.

sw

[stevebreeze]

12. hey I voted for Reagan....but I'm feeling much better now

[roughsatori]

21. You shouldn't feel any better, he was and is a Democrat NT

[WillyBrandt]

13. False

Krugman is not, and never was -- as far as I know -- a Republican. He has expressed admiration for how Sweden's social system is set up.

He is a liberal. But he is not a leftist: on the contrary, he's a brilliant orthodox economist who is isn't sucked into the anti-Free Trade arguments. And that's one reason he drives the wingnuts, well, nuts: he uses standard economic thinking to prove the foolishness and mendacity of their schemes.

Look, folks, not everyone who works for a given administration, especially in pretty minor posts, is of the same party. Man.

[Merlin]

15. He's sure no Republican now.

This is one of the great voices of sustained integrity in American history. He has stood in the prow of the ship and called out its true bearings during one of the worst storms we have ever had to weather.

Krugman is a man for the ages.

[WillyBrandt]

16. KRUGMAN NEVER WAS A REPUBLICAN

Man, talk about guilt by association.

Read Peddling Prosperity by Krugman sometime. You'll find no end of attack on the rightwing in the US and UK.

[Merlin]

17. Thank you for pointing this out. And I love your moniker.

Welcome to DU. Willy was a great man.

[Merlin]

19. Thanks, Doc, for the edit. n/t

.

[Unknown Known]

22. Krugman is a hero

He's saying things nobody wants to hear, but I fear he is right in his assessments. Our grandchildren will be paying for this mess. He is up against GIANTS!

[soleft]

23. Hillary Clinton worked for Goldwater

go figure

[MrPrax]

24. He has also consulted Enron

...but at least he admitted it in one of his columns and it was a few years ago
and after all he is an academic, first and foremost

[seasat]

26. Maybe he had some influence on Reagan.

Joshua Green had a great article on Reagan which make you realize how far to the right the current administration has gone.

Reagan's Liberal Legacy

Reagan expanded the EITC and cut out a number of corporate loopholes. Read the article, you'll realize how radical the Shrub administration is. Maybe Krugman had some influence.

(BTW, not defending Reagan's trickle down economics policies, they were a crock)