Krugman gets specific

I take back all my unkind complaints about Krugman doing too much generalizing. This opener is rather clear, and amusing besides.

Old-fashioned voodoo economics — the belief in tax-cut magic — has been banished from civilized discourse. The supply-side cult has shrunk to the point that it contains only cranks, charlatans, and Republicans.

And he offers a straightforward suggestion on bailing out investment bankers.

Why go through these contortions? The answer seems to be that Washington remains deathly afraid of the N-word — nationalization. The truth is that Gothamgroup and its sister institutions are already wards of the state, utterly dependent on taxpayer support; but nobody wants to recognize that fact and implement the obvious solution: an explicit, though temporary, government takeover. Hence the popularity of the new voodoo, which claims, as I said, that elaborate financial rituals can reanimate dead banks.

Neither does he mince words when assessing the ideologues among economists. I love it when he talks like that.

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