Congratulations to Paul Krugman on his Nobel Prize!

Our heartiest congrats to economist Paul Krugman for his newly-announced win of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences! In addition to his well-deserved win, Krugman is also a professor of Economics at Princeton University and the mind behind one of our favorite blogs, The Conscience of a Liberal, which he writes for The New York Times.

In addition to all that, he's a frequent and very welcome guest expert on television, and never fails to give brilliant observations while at the same time displaying a charming wry sense of humor that makes you laugh even as he's leading you unerringly to facing the grim truth of things. To prove my point, here are a couple of his appearances, first on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, and then in a clip which we've featured before, from HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, from about three weeks ago. Of course, he's a little more amusing on Maher's show, but he has such an approachable demeanor no matter what, and is able to talk about economics in a way that assures us that this guy knows his stuff, and how. He's great:






Let's see. A brilliant guy, the perfect choice, just won something important and world-shaking. Might this be a good sign for us? I'm crossing my fingers.


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History on the Side of Obama's Economic Plan

For a detailed yet emminently readable assessment of the differences between the economic policies of Obama and McCain, and what history has to say about the probable outcome, check out this terrific article in the New York Times by Alan Blinder, a professor of economics at Princeton.

The issues discussed include the overall growth of the economy and the incredible income inequality which has been exacerbated by recent policies.

This is particularly pertinent since McCain is out on the campaign trail lying about Obama's plan to raise taxes -- the Democratic plan would only raise them on incomes over $250,000 -- versus the Republican plan to keep in place indefinitely the current Bush tax code which offers preferential rates to the very wealthy and penalizes the middle class. It all boils down to math, kids, and unless you're a multi-millionaire, the Republicans are screwing you and giving a boost to their billionaire buddies. How does it feel to be played like a chump, anyway?

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