I remember when Staples put this Dilbert cartoon into an ad, and Krugman claims that this is how some American pundits decide who is "presidential."
Obviously, Krugman never would think a person's looks would determined whether or not he was "distinguished," but it was not that long ago that Progressives were united in their praises of the "distinguished economist" John Kenneth Galbraith, whom I dubbed the "Dilbert Economist." Yes, Galbraith was tall and had academic-style hair which...turned silver. That he was an economist as opposed to being a socialist political operative who made a number of nonsensical claims on economics is another subject for debate.
(For that matter, Bill Clinton was tall and his hair has turned silver, too. That must make him a "distinguished ex-president.")
Salvation by Printing Money
In the end, Krugman tends to be a Silvio Gesell-style crank. Print money (which everyone knows is free wealth), and governments easily can solve their economic problems. In a recent post, Krugman claims:
...countries without a printing press are subject to self-fulfilling crises in a way that nations that still have a currency of their own are not. The point is that fears of default, by driving up interest costs, can themselves trigger default — and that because there’s a crossing-the-Rubicon aspect to default, once a country crosses that line it will probably impose fairly severe losses on creditors. A country with its own currency isn’t in the same position: even if it is pushed into some inflation, there’s no red line that need be crossed.Yeah, there are no consequences for debasing the currency; it's all "free money"! Wealth for all!
