G. Frink's

Princeton University economics professor and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has this simple country boy's applause for his Nobel Memorial Prize award.

Anyone might see in the award a clear, critical message to President George Bush, whose catastrophic economic policies have been a frequent target of Krugman's columns for the Times. Krugman has said, for example, that Bush has led the country into "strategic disaster and moral squalor."

The work on trade for which the award was actually given is relatively complex, even when simplified and summarized.

Had it not been for Big Tent Democrat at Talk Left, I might have forgotten to mention here the ridicule to which Krugman has been subjected by right wingers over the years.

He quoted from an August 8, 2005 Power Line blog entry, which said:

It must be depressing to be Paul Krugman. No matter how well the economy performs, Krugman's bitter vendetta against the Bush administration requires him to hunt for the black lining in a sky full of silvery clouds. With the economy now booming, what can Krugman possibly have to complain about? In today's column, titled "That Hissing Sound," Krugman says there is a housing bubble, and it's about to burst ...

Of course we have all since learned to our collective grief that Krugman was correct, the right wingers wrong.

It was my twitter friend Natallini who, via an entry on her Starry Dynamo blog, offered congratulations in a most appropriate language.

Please read her congratulations here.