Paul Krugman listened to McCain’s speech yesterday morning and thought, hey, McCain’s channeling Herbert Hoover. So did I. Only Krugman got to say it first, because he got to say it on TV. Stupid old-media scoop.
Of course, Krugman also had better lines than I: “Ben Bernanke and (I think) Hank Paulson understand we could have another Great Depression if we work at it hard enough. I think Phil Gramm might be just the guy to do it.”
And just as a note with respect to our earlier discussion of such matters, notice the backdrop behind Krugman.
The Edge of the American West 
33 comments
September 16, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Baaaa
Re: Background
Did no one think of what lighter shades of human skin would look like in front of that color? If you are fortunate enough to have a significant amount of melanin in your skin, I can see that background being okay, but if you are like me (I turn red when hot, *seriously* purple when cold), and apparently Krugman is, your skin will turn orange.
This looks to be another thing forever changed with the Bush administration- no longer is the tag at the bottom of the screen enough to identify where Speaker X is coming from, no, we must be reminded by horrible wall paper behind them that they are affiliated with where ever.
On a more serious note, it does appear, from where I am sitting, that there are a tremendous number of parallels between where the financial markets are today and 1929, along with the disparity between the richest 1% of the population and the rest of us.
September 16, 2008 at 1:02 pm
jim
I assume the studio actually belongs to the University and part of their deal with whoever uses it to remotely interview one of the faculty is that backdrop.
September 16, 2008 at 1:05 pm
eric
Right, jim. But that was kind of my point in the previous discussion; some people made what I regard as the principled and I think abstractly correct point that academics making nonscholarly pronouncements maybe ought not to claim their institutional affiliation. In practice, though, this is basically impossible, not least because the institutions want to be associated with academics who go out into the nonscholarly world.
September 16, 2008 at 1:21 pm
andrew
Krugman has referred to that studio on his blog. It’s on campus, possibly in a basement somewhere, if I recall correctly. Along the same lines, I’ve been watching the BBC World News broadcasts on BBC America since there are no equivalent world news broadcasts anywhere on American TV and all of the Oxbridge professors interviewed remotely appear in front of backdrops prominently displaying their affiliations. More tastefully done than Princeton’s, I have to say.
September 16, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Josh
some people made what I regard as the principled and I think abstractly correct point that academics making nonscholarly pronouncements maybe ought not to claim their institutional affiliation.
Others made the point that academics making nonscholarly pronouncements maybe ought not to claim their institutional affiliation if they wanted to avoid the possibility that their nonscholarly pronouncements would reflect negatively on their scholarly work.
In practice, though, this is basically impossible, not least because the institutions want to be associated with academics who go out into the nonscholarly world.
Yeah, well, you take the good, you take the bad.
September 16, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Josh Carrollhach
Poor ol’ Hoover gets a bad rap for someone who devoted his entire life to public service and feeding the world’s starving masses. I am pretty sure he would be disgusted by the flagrant dishonesty of McCain’s campaign (it harks back to the log cabin and hard cider days of shit-slinging) and would be deeply insulted at the implied comparison.
Say, anyone notice how much McCain is blinking lately? Sweating, too. Reminds me of his old C in C, the Dickster…
September 16, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Vance
Sweating didn’t keep Nixon from winning, JC. You’re scaring me.
September 16, 2008 at 1:51 pm
eric
Poor ol’ Hoover gets a bad rap
I don’t think he does. He’s enjoyed a generation of revisionism, to the extent that his unforced errors—of which there were plenty—get overlooked.
September 16, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Colin
You need a background that would automatically change color depending on how unscholarly the talking head was being at that moment. Thus preserving everyone’s academic freedom.
Am I the only one who cannot abide Olbermann? And it’s not like PK needs softballs.
Yesterday’s Daily Show had pretty much the last word on blinking.
September 16, 2008 at 2:44 pm
eric
You need a background that would automatically change color depending on how unscholarly the talking head was being at that moment.
Brilliant. Just shoot in front of a green screen, so that producers can edit in pomp and circumstance or seas of peasants with pitchforks, as need be.
September 16, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Matt W
You need a background that would automatically change color depending on how unscholarly the talking head was being at that moment.
Dartmouth: Low unscholarliness. Risk of interviewer falling asleep.
Yale: Guarded unscholarliness. Risk of audience falling asleep.
Georgia Tech: High unscholarliness. Hope your tenure committee isn’t watching.
Princeton: Elevated unscholarliness. Students will be making fun of you in lecture tomorrow.
Harvard: Severe unscholarliness. Imminent approving reference from David Horowitz.
September 16, 2008 at 2:56 pm
andrew
This would be easier if it were more common for people to wear hats.
September 16, 2008 at 3:01 pm
eric
Everyone knows they’re supposed to click through to the TAP article, right?
September 16, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Vance
We’ve speculated on this in terms of the gown. Krugman reveals that in these interviews, he doesn’t even wear long pants, let alone a gown.
September 16, 2008 at 3:06 pm
andrew
I watched the end of that Larry King interview. You could tell from Krugman’s facial expressions that he was thinking along these lines:
September 16, 2008 at 3:06 pm
urbino
Yesterday’s Daily Show had pretty much the last word on blinking.
I thought this, via Yglesias, was the last word on blinking.
September 16, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Jason B
Everyone knows they’re supposed to click through to the TAP article, right?
That’s a good article, but it might lend some aid to the McCain campaign. They could probably claim that McCain picked up these ideas in a casual conversation with Hoover, doesn’t remember the source, and thinks the conversation was recent.
September 16, 2008 at 3:16 pm
eric
it might lend some aid to the McCain campaign
As you know, Jason, my devotion to scholarship is above mere partisanship.
September 16, 2008 at 3:18 pm
eric
Sorry, should have said “devotionship”.
September 16, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Jason B
As you know, Jason, my devotion to scholarship is above mere partisanship.
That’s why I’m here. Because my devotion to
lame jokespartisanship is above mere scholarship. Wheee!September 16, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Tiny Hermaphrodite
It’s really nice to see the phrase “the cossacks work for the czar” spread.
September 16, 2008 at 4:45 pm
jim
Oxbridge professors interviewed remotely appear in front of backdrops prominently displaying their affiliations. More tastefully done than Princeton’s, I have to say.
Long ago those Universities chose blue, before its desirable televisual properties were understood. Princeton’s orange doesn’t televise well (and I imagine Williams’s purple wouldn’t either). There are other environments where the colours do well, though. I have fond memories of a Halloween at the Princeton Club where one of the more enthusiastic alumnae emulated the action of the tiger. Orange and black made for a great party. Who cared about television?
September 16, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Gene O'Grady
In point of fact Hoover, for whom I do have a little sympathy, did not devote his entire life to public service. He devoted quite a lot of it to making quite a lot of money; I’ve always known there was something questionable about his California mining time and it has recently been claimed (I think) that there may have been something dicey about his activities overseas.
I remember when I was kid hearing Hoover addressing a Republican convention (1960, I think) and declaring emphatically “America is in a moral slump.” Did that mean anything, or were they just letting an old man talk?
September 16, 2008 at 5:14 pm
urbino
I imagine Williams’s purple wouldn’t either
OTOH, NYU’s works rather well, I think.
September 16, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Matt W
Krugman may have got on TV but who got linked by the Brad Pitt of the wonkosphere?
September 16, 2008 at 6:47 pm
eric
Awww, yeah, EK.
September 16, 2008 at 8:31 pm
urbino
Speaking of wiggly fingers, every time I see Paul Krugman on the teevee, I expect him to wiggle his ears.
September 16, 2008 at 8:35 pm
eric
I can in fact wiggle my ears.
September 16, 2008 at 8:36 pm
urbino
Which just proves my thesis: you are Paul Krugman.
September 16, 2008 at 8:40 pm
fafnir
Well I like that background. It’s like opening up a delicious can of tomato and Krugman soup.
September 17, 2008 at 9:07 am
JPool
Those are some good lines, but if Princeton wants Krugman to keep appearing in front of their magic orange backdrop, they might want to teach him to sit up straight and close his mouth between responses. Also maybe not to apologize for his best lines.
Eric, I did like your piece and have pointed a couple folks towards it.
September 17, 2008 at 10:38 am
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