More on Paul Krugman

Just the other day, I linked to some opinions by Paul Krugman about the Obama administration's plan for bailing out banks and unfreezing credit markets. He was against it. On the other hand, Krugman thinks Obama's budget is very good. For instance:

The budget will, among other things, come as a huge relief to Democrats who were starting to feel a bit of postpartisan depression. The stimulus bill that Congress passed may have been too weak and too focused on tax cuts. The administration’s refusal to get tough on the banks may be deeply disappointing. But fears that Mr. Obama would sacrifice progressive priorities in his budget plans, and satisfy himself with fiddling around the edges of the tax system, have now been banished.
For this budget allocates $634 billion over the next decade for health reform. That’s not enough to pay for universal coverage, but it’s an impressive start. And Mr. Obama plans to pay for health reform, not just with higher taxes on the affluent, but by putting a halt to the creeping privatization of Medicare, eliminating overpayments to insurance companies.

It seems to me that I remember Krugman from back during the Clinton administration as a neo-liberal economist who very much promoted the mainstream line on globalization. Maybe Krugman has changed over the past eight years. Maybe I have changed and lost my radical edge. Or maybe Krugman just looks good in comparison to right-wing economic orthodoxy.

Whatever it is, I find that these days I look forward to reading Krugman's opinions, and often find them useful and informative. Oddly enough, moderately progressive economists such as Krugman seem to be somewhat out of favor in the Obama White House. See this post on Alas, a blog for the details. It includes an embedded link to a very funny music video.