{"id":1615,"date":"2026-03-16T09:29:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/threepennyreview.com\/lesserblog\/?p=1615"},"modified":"2026-03-16T09:29:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:29:31","slug":"my-paul-krugman-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/threepennyreview.com\/lesserblog\/my-paul-krugman-addiction\/","title":{"rendered":"My Paul Krugman Addiction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For years I read his columns in the <em>New York Times<\/em>, and always liked and admired them. But things have reached a whole new level of dependence since Trump was elected and Paul Krugman departed the <em>Times<\/em> for <a href=\"https:\/\/paulkrugman.substack.com\/\">Substack<\/a>\u2014events which, probably not coincidentally, happened within a month or so of each other. Now I can barely get out of bed without reading him first thing, either on weekdays, when he sends around a daily newsletter, or on weekends, when he does a topical interview on Saturday and an in-depth piece of economic analysis on Sunday. The latter investigations are not really aimed at me (I have no economics training), but I find it useful to try to struggle through them anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What <em>are<\/em> aimed at me\u2014and at everyone else to whom I\u2019ve recommended Paul Krugman\u2019s Substack, including a number of European friends\u2014are his trenchant daily eviscerations of the Trump administration and its \u201cpolicies\u201d (if such a rational word can be applied to these selfishly greedy, despicably venal, and ultimately scattershot procedures). These are very hard times to be living through, and we need all the good company we can get. Krugman is that company, and more. He is fearless and smart and funny and sane: a good combination any time, but especially necessary now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I don\u2019t know why it\u2019s so comforting to read about the current American disasters\u2014which are rapidly becoming worldwide disasters\u2014in his clean, clear prose; you would think I would have enough of the bad news with just the daily paper. But there is something about seeing these horrible events grasped and reckoned with, even by one person&#8217;s mind, that makes me feel better. Thought and analysis and intelligent critique are a kind of power, too. And in the absence of any serious legislative or judicial opposition to Trump, the sound of one man fighting against all this with just his brain and his words is about the best medicine available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For years I read his columns in the New York Times, and always liked and admired them. But things have reached a whole new level of dependence since Trump was elected and Paul Krugman departed the Times for Substack\u2014events which, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/threepennyreview.com\/lesserblog\/my-paul-krugman-addiction\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[899,900],"class_list":["post-1615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-lesser-blog","tag-paul-krugman","tag-substack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threepennyreview.com\/lesserblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/threepennyreview.com\/lesserblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/threepennyreview.com\/lesserblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threepennyreview.com\/lesserblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threepennyreview.com\/lesserblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/threepennyreview.com\/lesserblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1616,"href":"https:\/\/threepennyreview.com\/lesserblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615\/revisions\/1616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threepennyreview.com\/lesserblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threepennyreview.com\/lesserblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threepennyreview.com\/lesserblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}