via Obama Officials Think Krugman Is Naive: Newsweek’s Evan Thomas.
Newsweek’s Evan Thomas, who has the big cover story on the rather prickly relationship between the White House and Paul Krugman, offered a rather
Economist Paul Krugman
surprising insight into the relationship between the two.
Speaking to MSNBC on Monday, the longtime magazine scribe said that the Obama administration is not “too crazy about Krugman” (no surprise, considering how much criticism Krugman has laid on the White House’s economic policies) and that, in private, they “think he is naive.”
Krugman is smart. I wish he was smart enough to realize the difference between Barrack Obama and John McCain. Krugman is attacking Obama from the left saying that government spending isn’t enough and that certain “too big to fail” banks should be nationalized. I guess he thinks that the right doesn’t bitch enough.
But from conversations I’ve had [Sam Stein] with the administration, I’m not sure if it is entirely true. Krugman does levy some of the harshest critiques at the president’s policies — critiques that sting both because of who Krugman is and where (professionally and philosophically) he comes from. The White House, however, has consulted with him on many matters — though not all. Krugman, for his part, told Newsweek that “the White House has done very little by way of serious outreach.”
Moreover, officials in the executive office view him not as naïve but rather as someone who happens to come from “a different ideological perspective.”
True. If John McCain were in office he would dismiss Krugman as a looney liberal and a socialist and be done with him. At least Obama listens to him. Some.
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P.S. A.I.G. is not a bank. It is an insurance company. They insured TRILLIONS of dollars worth of toxic assets. They got in way over their heads.
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