The Geithner plan opposition: It’s all about the briefings

By Justin Fox | March 24, 2009 | +

Matthew Yglesias wonders if the ferocity of Paul Krugman and Joe Stiglitz‘s criticisms of the Geithner plan can be explained by the apparent fact they haven’t been briefed/consulted by the Obama administration. I dunno, I sort of get the feeling that Paul and Joe prefer not being briefed, because being briefed means to a certain extent being co-opted, and they’ve both got a lot of intellectual brand equity invested in being freewheeling, non-co-optable types.

Then again, who doesn’t love briefings?

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dotybj

Plus if your ideas are actually put into practice, its possible to be proven to be fallible.
umeshgeeta

Krugman should be open for ‘falsification’. But I guess Justin is right when he says both Krugman and Stiglitz are quite invested in portraying as outsiders.

Besides earlier I used to promote lot such ‘teaming of rivals’. Now I see the value of having outside experts. That is how we need our Society to work – you always have folks outside the power with credibility to take on ‘powers be’.

Because without that we will have no reference. For example, what will be use when Krugman passes the judgment that he actually liked Obama Budget if he was with the Administration?

Krugman / Stiglitz have to carry this ‘cross’ of – no petals but always critics.
tc125231

Cripes this can be a snarky lot. I would suggest that it might be related to why Warren Buffet has repeatedly stated that he can find undervalued well run businesses, but has had no luck in fixing poorly run ones. The ability to predict success or failure is not even remotely similar to running complex operations successfully.

If you accept this model, their position may be to their credit. Of course, it’s probably a lot more fun to be snarky.