Paul Krugman’s Final Column for The New York Times
Paul Krugman has stepped down as a columnist for the NYT. A Nobel laureate in economics, he had contributed columns to the NYT for 25 years. In particular, he wrote insightful economic pieces in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and his analyses, insights, and forecasts on the state of the economy and finance racked up a winning streak that lasted more than 15 years.
I first encountered his column in 2010, and it moved me deeply. The reason I started a paid subscription to the NYT was to read his columns. Even during my busy days as a new employee, I once made time to attend one of his lectures. Granted, he often made wrong predictions in fields outside of finance and became a laughingstock for it, and he was especially prone to making unhinged statements whenever it came to matters involving Donald Trump. The point at which I began to filter his columns selectively was around the time Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. Now that Trump has become president once again, neither he nor his readers could bear it any longer, I suppose. An era has come to an end.
His final column is about the public’s anger toward the elite. The gist of the column is this: the elite have earned the public’s distrust through corruption and greed, and politicians like Donald Trump are exploiting this. Yet the demagogues, too, are nothing more than elites who deserve condemnation—indeed, they are the most wicked of all—and he expresses the hope that someday the truth will come to light.
As ever, it is an arrogant piece, befitting one who considers himself enlightened. And yet one cannot say he is simply wrong. Although he lost some of his dignity over the years by wrestling in the mud, he proved that he remains a proud and unyielding progressive. I look forward to seeing where he goes from here.
Link to the Original
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/opinion/elites-euro-social-media.html?unlocked_article_code=1.gk4.IoOa.Oj3-QD7_ArHn&smid=url-share
GPT’s Translation
Title:
My Last Column: Finding Hope in an Age of Anger December 9, 2024
Body:
Paul Krugman Opinion Columnist
This is my last column since I began publishing my opinions in The New York Times in January 2000. I am leaving The New York Times, but I am not leaving the world, so I will still express my opinions elsewhere. But this seems like a good moment to look back at what has changed over the past 25 years.
Looking back, I realize how optimistic many people were back then—especially many people here and across the Western world—and how that optimism has been replaced by anger and resentment. I am not simply talking about the working class who feel betrayed by the elite. Some of the most angry and resentful people in America today are the billionaires who are likely to wield a great deal of influence in the Trump administration. They feel that they are not respected enough.
It is not easy to convey how good Americans felt in 1999 and early 2000. The polls of that time showed such high levels of satisfaction with the direction of the country that they look unrealistic by today’s standards. I think that in the 2000 election, many Americans took peace and prosperity for granted and simply voted for the person who seemed more pleasant to hang out with.
Things were good in Europe, too. In particular, the introduction of the euro in 1999 was widely welcomed as a step toward political and economic integration. Some Americans were worried about it, but in the early days that concern was not widely shared.
Of course, not everything went smoothly. For example, even in America under President Clinton, QAnon-like conspiracy theories emerged, and there were some incidents of domestic terrorism. In Asia there was a financial crisis, which we can see as foreshadowing what could happen in the future. In 1999 I published a book titled “The Return of Depression Economics,” in which I argued that something similar could happen in America as well. Ten years later, when it actually happened, I put out a revised edition. Even so, it was a time when people had positive feelings about the future.
Why did this optimism disappear? In my view, our trust in the elite collapsed. The public now no longer trusts whether the people running the world really know what they are doing, or whether they are acting honestly.
In 2002 and 2003 there was a great deal of opposition to those who argued that the invasion of Iraq was fundamentally a fraud, but who could say such a thing now?
The financial crisis of 2008 eroded public trust even further. The euro as a currency survived the European crisis of 2012—when the unemployment rate in some countries reached Great Depression levels—but trust in the Eurocrats did not survive.
It was not just governments; banks also lost the public’s trust. It is astonishing how positively the banks were regarded before the financial crisis.
And not long ago, tech billionaires were widely respected regardless of political leaning, and some were treated like folk heroes. But now the public has grown disillusioned with them and their products, and Australia has even banned children under 16 from using social media.
So, to say it again, some of the most angry people in America today are the billionaires.
We saw this before, after the 2008 financial crisis. Although it was widely acknowledged that part of the cause of the crisis lay in financial transactions and commercial behavior, these masters of the universe expressed Obama-rage rather than reflection. They even angrily rejected the very suggestion that Wall Street might bear some responsibility for the disaster.
Recently there has been much discussion about the sharp turn to the right among some tech billionaires. I argue that we do not need to over-analyze this, nor is there any reason to say that the politically correct liberals did something wrong. Basically, it is the simple fact that wealthy people who once enjoyed the public’s love are now coming to terms with the reality that money cannot buy love.
So is there a way out of this dark situation we find ourselves in? I believe that anger can elevate bad people to positions of power, but in the long run it cannot keep them there. In the end, the public will come to realize that the politicians who rail against the elite are themselves, in reality, the very elite they talk about. And at that point, the public may begin to listen to those who do not derive their logic from authority, who do not make false promises, and who try to tell the truth as much as possible.
We may not be able to regain the belief that those in power are telling the truth and doing things right, but that is not necessarily required either. But if we fight against kakistocracy (rule by the worst people), in the end we will be able to find the path to a better world.
20241212
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