a mixed bag of essays from a liberal economist
| This collection of essays from MIT economist Paul Krugman illustrates an important principle that applies to all scientists: the further away you are from your field, the less sense you make. Krugman's speciality is international trade, and the few essays in this book that deal with that subject shine out as examples of a willingness to stick to the facts and solid theory, even when they don't jibe with his liberal leanings. Krugman's liberal buddies must howl in agony as they read things like "In Praise of Cheap Labor," and the title essay, "The Accidental Theorist," is an enjoyable, unmerciful bashing of liberal journalist William Grieder. Krugman takes aim at the right as well, and while he makes some good points about the follies of conservative politicians and pundits, his liberal bias starts to creep in. In "The Lost Fig Leaf: Why the Conservative Revolution Failed," he engages in the same kind of sloppy arguments that he accuses Dick Armey of engaging in just a few pages before. Listing the various items in the Federal budget that have wide support, Krugman proclaims that any significantly sized tax cut is therefore impossible. As if a tax cut of 17.8% (the remainder of unlisted items) of the Federal budget wouldn't be a gigantic tax refund! The book really starts to go off the deep end in the last section, as Krugman deals with subjects that get farther and farther away from his speciality. "Earth in the Balance Sheet," an attempt to show that economists care about the environment, does little to convince the reader of the dangers of global warming and the wisdom of carbon taxes. "Rat Democracy" is an excellent example of how Krugman can get things exactly backwards: examining the field of public choice economics, Krugman is blind to the problems of granting unlimited wealth distribution powers to the government, instead favoring restrictions on participating in the political process. Krugman even invokes Marx at the end of "A Medical Dilemma," suggesting that the future may be "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." "Taxes and Traffic Jams" is the one semi-decent essay in this section, but it ends with a contradiction. Conservatives are bashed for not being consistently free market, the exact opposite of the criticism that was offered in the first essay in this section. |
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