Considering Paul Krugman "Intellectual Clarity"

The Krugman years of fat intellectual clarity.

P. Krurgman writes this morning:

With the result of the presidential election looking relatively clear — I know, chickens not hatched and all that, but, you know, polls have actually been fairly accurate — I’m thinking more about economics. And I realized something not too flattering about myself: I’m feeling nostalgic for 2011 or so.

Why? It was, of course, a terrible time for much of the world, and especially for anyone without a job. But for someone like me, an economist with secure personal finances, it was a time of wonderful intellectual clarity.

His embarrassing book, End This Depression Now!. was published in April 2012, which means he wrote it during his period of "intellectual clarity," the year 2011.

Of course, by 2011, it was clear to all but the dense that the economy was moving out of the bust phase and into the boom phase of the Fed created boom-bust cycle. His book was warning about an episode that was quickly becoming just a distant rear-view memory.

In other words, if  End This Depression Now! is a reflection of Krugman's intellectual clarity, you can imagine what his murky periods must be like.

 -RW