Paul Benedict Arnold Krugman?

Oh my, Paul Krugman appears to have defected to the troglodytes with a superficial swipe at Modern Monetary Theory.

Fortunately, the ever-vigilant Bill Mitchell is ready to reply chapter and verse.

The question is, since Krugman himself says the argument is not really topical right now, is why he has a bee in his bonnet to make this point now?

Economist pundits

Paul Krugman is still my hero. No one tells it so consistently the way it is. I occasionally part ways with him, as on the tax cuts for the rich, where he just beat that horse to death, but he is remarkably lucid and a darn good writer.

Today's column nails the hypocrisy and intellectual dishonesty of the Republican members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which is now officially a joke.

Unfortunately, I may have to part ways more permanently with my other hero pundit economist, the incredibly prolific Simon Johnson, who has been so good on the too big to fail question. Johnson seems irremediably ensconced in the deficit hawk camp, as this column today evidences, whereas I continue to find the post-Keynesian view of deficits completely convincing. In any case, Johnson's voice in this issue will be lost in the chorus of orthodoxy, whereas he was a prophetic voice crying in the wilderness on the bank issue.

Update: Alas, now the leading post-Keynesian guru, Bill Mitchell, has consigned Simon to the nether world for the same offense. Underlines the importance of diversity of opinion, I guess