When he takes off his economist hat and puts on his political commentator hat, he can sometime see something that a mainstream economist would not, and he is definitely a mainstream economist with rather progressive policy goals ... but he is still a mainstream economist.

One of the most pernicious biases of the mathematical modeling economists is that if they do not have a model for something that simple observation will confirm is happening, they enter an effect of "0". The burden of proof is on reality to prove that it ought to be incorporated into the model.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

"most men - not only those considered clever, but even those who are very clever and capable of understanding most difficult scientific, mathematical, or philosophic, problems - can seldom discern even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as obliges them to admit the falsity of conclusions they have formed, perhaps with much difficulty -- conclusions of which they are proud, which they have taught to others, and on which they have built their lives." Leo Tolstoy.

[B]y 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's.

Paul Krugman, 1998.

His point is that doing it will not prevent financial crises and that he disagrees with people advocating only having smaller banks, without regulating them.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi