Paul Krugman: An Appreciated, and Rare, Reversal of Economic Doctrine

Tuesday, 18 December 2012 12:55  
By Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co. | Op-Ed 

Bruce Bartlett is a mensch.

A mensch, at least as I was taught the term, is someone who takes responsibility for his actions, including his mistakes. Alas, "menschlichkeit" is a rare virtue in modern America, certainly in the political sphere, where nobody ever admits to being wrong about anything.

So all hail Mr. Bartlett, who has written movingly in The American Conservative magazine's December issue about how he came to realize that conservatism and its economic doctrine weren't what he imagined them to be, and in particular how he came to realize that Keynesian analysis had a point. Mr. Bartlett's essay only drives home, of course, how very few economists — whether in the policy/think tank world or in academia — have been willing to do the same. You have to wonder in particular about the prominent economists who threw their support behind Mitt Romney in his late, unlamented campaign.