Paul Krugman and Enron: "Paul Krugman, an editorial columnist for The New York Times (news/quote), said he was also paid $50,000 to serve on an Enron advisory board in 1999. He disclosed his connection in a Jan. 24, 2001, column about Enron.
"This was an advisory panel that had no function that I was aware of," Mr. Krugman said today. "My later interpretation is that it was all part of the way they built an image. All in all, I was just another brick in the wall.""
From: "White House Says Economics Adviser Saw Little Risk on Enron"
nytimes.com
Further comment at:
andrewsullivan.com
"KRUGMAN AND ENRON: We’re all used to Paul Krugman’s insistent attacks on the Bush administration’s
economic policies, his suspicion of big business, his love of high taxes and greater government spending, and his
withering scorn for idle corporate bloat and what he recently called the “crony capitalism,” epitomized by Enron. So I was a little taken aback by the nugget buried in yesterday’s Times that Krugman too has been on Enron’s payroll. Even more intriguing is what he was paid for. At the very end of the article we hear Krugman’s explanation for taking $50,000 as a consultant for Enron in 1999: "This was an advisory panel that had no function that I was aware of. My later interpretation is that it was all part of the way they built an image. All in all, I was just another brick in the wall." Run that by me again. He took $50,000 to sit on a panel that “had no function that I was aware of” except to add allure to Enron’s image? And today, he is still waxing self-righteous in his column about a corrupt system of regulation that allowed Enron to get away with financial murder. He’s right about the corruption and the need for stronger regulation. But don’t you think that someone who bemoans cronyism and corruption might, after this scandal broke, acknowledge in his own column that he himself was an Enron crony, while that company was, indeed, corrupt?"
Sullivan is referring to Paul Krugman's column in today's NY Times on, you guessed it, Enron:
"A System Corrupted
By PAUL KRUGMAN"
nytimes.com |
