PAUL KRUGMAN WINNER OF 2008 NOBEL PRICE IN ECONOMICS

Congratulations to Paul Krugman for winning the 2008 Nobel Price in Economics. Krugman is an op-ed writer for The New York Times as well as a professor of economics at Princeton.

Catherine Rampell writes in The New York Times:

"The prize committee lauded Mr. Krugman for “having shown the effects of economies of scale on trade patterns and on the location of economic activity.” "

Paul Krugman is a critic of the laissez-faire policies of the Bush gang, especially when it comes to banks and investment banks. Krugman believes, as I do, that this whole financial mess that has resulted in so many people losing their homes to foreclosure, came about because Bush's cronies failed to apply any meaningful regulation to the mortgage sales practices as well as to the securitization of home mortgages in these "collateralized mortgage obligations."

Reports Rampell:

"Mr. Krugman, 55, is probably more widely known as a perpetual thorn in George Bush’s side from his perch as an Op-Ed page columnist for nearly a decade. His columns have won him both strong supporters and ardent critics. The Nobel, however, was awarded for academic — and less political — research that he conducted primarily before he began regularly writing for The Times."

The Nobel award to Krugman, however, can be seen as a rejection of this Bush free-for-all in the mortgage and securities markets. Bush thinks his legacy will be recognized in time, but the rest of the world has already made its judgment, and it is more a condemnation than a validation.