Paul Krugman on Flimflammery

And the Audacity of Dopes

I like Paul K. I really like him. He has good arguments and does not mince words. He also doesn't seem to be paid by the word. What he has to say here is applicable to people running the University of Minnesota as well as the gubernatorial candidates in Minnesota currently jockeying for position.

From How to Spot a Flimflammer:

Long ago — basically when I started writing for the Times — I decided that I would judge the character of politicians by what they say about policy, not how they come across in person. This led me to conclude that George W. Bush was dishonest and dangerous back when everyone was talking about how charming and reasonable he was. It led me to conclude that Colin Powell couldn’t be trusted, back when everyone said his UN speech clinched the case for war. It led me to conclude that John McCain was unprincipled and self-centered, back when everyone said he was a deeply principled maverick. And yes, it led me to conclude that Barack Obama was a good man, but far less progressive than his enthusiastic supporters imagined.

Mr. Krugman yesterday disemboweled a specific flimflam artist, our Wisconsin neighbor Paul Ryan, in a post entitled: The Flimflam Man.

Which brings me to the innovative thinker du jour: Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

The Washington Post put a glowing profile of Mr. Ryan on its front page, portraying him as the G.O.P.’s fiscal conscience. He’s often described with phrases like “intellectually audacious.”

But it’s the audacity of dopes.

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To see this idea more fully developed, you'll have to go to the full article. To my reading Krugman does a good job of exposing Ryan's supposed "fresh food for thought" as "leftovers from the '90s drenched in flimflam sauce."

How do these ideas relate to the U? See the results of cooking endowment investments in flimflam sauce.

Gubernatorial race? Krugman destroys Ryan's ideas about cutting our way to economic growth that are remarkably similar to the no new tax crowd in Minnesota. These include the current absentee governor as well as his darker version, Tom Emmer, who is trying to avoid revealing what is in the flimflam sauce bottle for as long as possible.

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