In an appearance on HuffPost Live on Friday to promote his book “End This Depression Now!,” New York Times columnist Paul Krugman criticized colleague Thomas Friedman for regurgitating what he called “conventional” Beltway wisdom.
“I mean I often disagree with Tom,” Krugman said. “I often disagree with a school of thought of which he is a member. So, Times etiquette is, I talk about the school of thought, not the guy. I mean, Tom’s a good guy, but I think that, on these issues, he’s just much too close to the Beltway conventional wisdom, which at times — conventional wisdom is right. But right now, it’s really, really wrong.”
“David [Brooks] is a conservative. He and I really disagree on what kind of society we ought to have,” he said. “I don’t think Tom and I really do disagree, but Tom has a different view of how we get there. And I’m much more confrontational … on the straight economics, I’ve been taking positions that seem outlandish to a lot of Beltway types, except I’ve been right. I’ve been right on interest rates. I’ve been right on inflation, so I think I should have some credibility at this point.”
Despite those differences, Krugman insisted that the Times’ editorial page is better than the alternatives.
“At this point, the Times op-ed page is so much better than anybody else’s that any important national debate is going to be played out among Times columnists,” Krugman added.
Watch (23:30 in):
(h/t Huffington Post Media)