I love walking past a couple of sophomores in high school and overhearing a deep conversation about politics. All I heard was, "All Republicans think that....." and I didn't hear the rest, but when you begin a sentence with "All x think..." the rest of the sentence will be wrong.
This got me motivated to learnicate and edufy my friends on FB and Twitter.
To this end, here is a Garrett Jones book review of Paul Krugman's "End This Depression Now!" My favorite sentence: "When you're disagreeing with Friedman, you're probably in the wrong. And
sadly, when you disagree with Paul Krugman, you have a better than even
chance of being right."
I know that I'm a moderate. What "moderate" means is the subject of another post. When I discuss anything related to economics with a liberal, the first thing they throw in my face is Paul Krugman. I think most economists feel about Krugman the way that most ministers feel about the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church. They acknowledge the person, acknowledge that they have similar education and understanding of quite a bit of theology (except some really important points), but they completely disagree on its application in this world where real people's lives are affected by policy.
Maybe the analogy with the Westboro pastor is extreme, but after years of reading economists that I admire and respect opine on Krugman's latest red-faced tantrum on television or his NYT blog, and after hearing nice people on the left invoke his name in the same way they would a god, I cannot help but show some frustration.
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