The Efficient Krugman Hypothesis, Part II

 Last Sunday Brad Delong commented on his blog,

" Yet another demonstration of the fact that sometime in 2000 we entered a strange world in which Paul Krugman is always right. If we are going to live in such a world, I really, really wish that he had a sunnier and more optimistic disposition. It would make things much better...

 I've written previously on this phenomena.  In the discussion that followed there was much discussion of time-warps and other science fiction inspired explanations for the Efficient Krugman Hypothesis.
In the comments (late to the game) I wrote:

Occam's razor requires me to suggest that no time warp or other supernatural mechanism is needed to explain the Efficient Krugman Hypothesis. (I.e. Paul is always right.) He is always right for four distinct and simple reasons:
1) He is flat incredibly intelligent. (See Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics 2008.)
2) He is unbelievably well informed. (I continue to read Paul's and Brad's blogs because I regularly learn something that I did not know previously.)
3) He is truly disinterested (He has absolutely no axe to grind, no interests to either represent or pander to.)
4) He is amazingly brave, in the manner that only a tenured full professor at an elite school can be. 

This is the reason why second rate (OK I'm being generous to myself, third rate) academic leftists go into the battle against economic ignorance and misinformation chanting, "There is no economist but Krugman, and Delong is his prophet."


The real time warp victims were the "fresh water economists" for whom elegance in theoretical formulations became more important than empirical relevance. I really did think that economics represents more than mathematical masturbation. Silly me.