A Yiddish Lesson from Paul Krugman

Krugman writes:

My late father burst out laughing when I told him that the Lotte Lenya character in the Austin Powers movies is named Frau Farbissina; I’m sufficiently cut off from my cultural heritage that I had to ask him why. It turns out that it comes from farbissen, which — as is typical in Yiddish — has connotations that go beyond its usual translation as “bitter”. A farbissineh (think clenched teeth) is someone who not only isn’t enjoying herself, but is determined to make sure that nobody else has any enjoyment either.

Interesting.

From there it is all down hill in the post. Krugman spends the rest of the post calling for more Fed money printing. Of which one could say, mann tracht und Gott lacht (Man plans and God laughs)