Krugman Wins Nobel Prize
Congratulations today to Princeton Prof. Paul Krugman for winning the Nobel Prize for Economics. Through his columns in the New York Times since 1999, Krugman has clearly and succinctly explained an increasingly complex economy in ways that are easy to grasp and meaningful to those of us not steeped in the vocabulary and process of today’s markets and the economy.
Here in the dwindling American middle-class we’ve all known that things are different, the prospects for the American Dream have become elusive. Krugman has had an uncanny ability to understand this at a high level and explain it at a broad level.
Krugman has become so well-known in the mainstream and new media for his abilities that we sometimes forget that his day job is “Professor.” Academics get a bad wrap for living in “Ivory Towers.” Krugman on the other hand has done the public a service by translating his Ivy League intellect into the language of us all. His Nobel is a reminder to me that there is an accomplished theorist behind the Times columns and appearances on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
Perhaps Krugman’s greatest accomplishment, when all is said and done, will not be the Nobel-quality academic work. It may end up being his ability to translate a transformational economy to the rest of us. What I’m going to do in honor of Krugman’s Nobel is see if I can continue my Economics self-education by understanding more of what he’s accomplished in academia.
Some of Krugman’s Recent Work in the New York Times:
- The Conscience of a Liberal (Blog)
- Op-Ed: Cash for Trash – New York Times, September 21
- Op-Ed: The 3 a.m. call - New York Times, September 28
- Op-Ed: Moment of truth – New York Times, October 10
