OK, why is Paul Krugman the coolest economist ever? I read a comment somewhere that you liked him and that he's an economist, but I don't know much else.

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[A gentle suggestion: if you are curious about something like this in the future, throw it into Google and then give it a few moments thought. Research is your friend...]
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| Paul Krugman Awarded Nobel Prize For Economics |
| from the too-smart-fr-government dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday October 14, @17:35 (Sci-Fi) |
| http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/14/2048200 |
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[0]zogger writes in his journal, "The guy who put together the concept of geographical location combined with cheap transportation leading to '[1] like trades with like' and the rise of superindustrial trading blocs has won the Nobel economics science prize. He's a bigtime critic of a lot of this administration's policies, and is unabashedly an FDR-economy styled fella. Here is his [2]blog at the NYTimes." Reader yoyoq adds that Krugman's career choice was inspired by reading [3]Asimov's Foundation series at a young age.

Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/10/14/2048200

Links:
0. http://slashdot.org/~zogger/journal/
1. http://www.kva.se/KVA_Root/swe/_news/detail.asp?NewsId=1101&br=ns&ver=6up
2. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/
3. http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1925

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NB: My high opinion isn't because he is an SF fan, although that was pleasant information to receive.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can find out all about his work that way. But if I want to know why *you* are so big on him, I have to ask *you*.

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Indeed, you do. However, 'Why is Paul Krugman the coolest economist ever?' isn't addressed to me alone, it's addressed to the universe at large. It sounds like you want to know why the committe awarded him the nobel, something best found out from their site or a general google search

'What is it you like about Krugman?' for example, is a little clearer that you want my opinion instead of general information.

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This was not a post, this was a comment to *you*.

OK, restating. What is it you like about Krugman? (So far, all I know about your opinion of Krugman is that isn't due to him being an SF Fan.)

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In an open comment thread, addressed to... oh hell then, call me arbitrary and capricious - but in the future keep in mind that if you can't be bothered to alter your grammar to address a question to me, I probably can't be bothered to answer it.

I like Krugman because, as the quote mentioned, he drags economics out of the abstract and actually bothers to consider what we know about human behavior when talking about what humans do with their money. Most economic theory assumes an ideal, rational, utterly imaginary consumer who always makes the best possible decision in the situation. Actual people do not usually behave anything like that, so most economic theory tends to crash and burn at some point.

He's also not afraid to identify stupid ideas as such, no matter who they come from.

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Hey, just let me know if you need to "rustle up" knitting equipment. Because, dear $Deity in $Goodplace, I can haz needlz. Crochet hooks, too, so just shoot me an email with the size you want, if you want.

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ooooh, yeah. I thought I had a crochet hook in with my office supplies, but apparently at some point I got all organized or something and sorted it out and back where it belongs. :) I will look and see the recommended needle size and mail you later after my roommate wakes up and I can get to the yarn without too much incident. I want to say it is P or K but neither of those seems exactly right either.

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Yay! for yarny goodness.

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It's driving me crazy to have is sitting there taunting me every time I walk into the closet. :)

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I saw that you already had an offer of crochet hooks should yours not turn up, but I've got some extra too should you need them since I inherited all of Grandmas this summer. :)

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