I'm not an admirer of many of the theoretical positions he takes, but he writes well and often in these kinds of posts he draws attention to considerations that not enough mainstream economists are paying attention to.
He's more often worth citing than other of the standard talking heads of economics like Greg Mankiw.
Yes this is a fascinating insight to the world - it's too complex for accurate prediction, you have to instead do preparation and adapt as events occur.
This is one of those things people just say like a tourette.
Only study that attempted to quantify pundit accuracy (I know about) found out that Krugman was the most accurate public pundit.
source: Hefferman, S., Klondar, E., & Tummarello, K. 2011. Are talking heads blowing hot air? An analysis of the accuracy of forecasts in the political media.
From what I've seen, the hate is mostly because the things he says contradict the trickle-down bullshit right-wing and libertarian types tend to be steeped in.
To be fair, it's still a yearly prize, for economics, awarded by the same Nobel Foundation that awards the other prizes, under the same rules as the other prizes. The laureates are announced at the same time as the other laureates, the awards are presented in the same manner as the others and everyone shows up to the same Nobel Prize Awards Ceremony.
And if we really want to go full pedant, the award isn't called anything in English at all, the real name is the "Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne"
'Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Memory of Alfred Nobel' is more or less a literal translation of the Swedish name, minus the part about 'in economic science' and whether or not you feel like translating the name of the Swedish royal bank.
Anyway, even the Nobel Foundation explicitly says it isn't a Nobel Prize:
> Not a Nobel Prize
> The prize in economic sciences is not a Nobel Prize.
It is an interesting detail, but I guess taht most most people will still refer to it colloquially as Nobel prize.
I think that point about the nature of the price doesn't diminish the point that was being made. As much as it is a call to authority, weight of opinion of someone rewarded with that price is bigger than random voice on the internet.
That being said I think this thread starting with unsubstantiated criticism of Paul Krugman ideas/opinions is not constructive and rather useless.
This is in the same category as correcting people who say “this data.”
Yes, you’re technically correct. But also, you missed the point and are being self-defeatingly pedantic. The economics prize is valued for all the reasons the Nobel prizes are; they carry similar prestige and are thus used interchangeably.
