Paul Krugman Is Just So Darned Cute. And Smart, Too.

It's kind of strange how popular tastes change over the years, the decades.

Frank Sinatra made girls "swoon" back in the 1940s. Elvis made girls faint in the 1950s, and the Beatles made girls and boys weep with love and adulation in the 1960s.

Of course we've also always had that bad-boy thing. Marlon Brando in The Wild One. Robert Mitchum in anything at all. Johnny Depp, Sean Penn -- that slightly dangerous, slightly bad boy that draws the eyes of all the girls.

But never before in our history have so many of us, men and women, developed almost obsessive crushes on -- economists. For heaven's sake, these are the males who dressed with pocket protectors and carried slide rules in first grade. They weren't chosen last to be on the baseball team -- they weren't chosen at all. They may have been nerdy or geeks, but they didn't even take the computer-billionaire off-ramp. Passed that one right by. Probably had their nose buried in some book or another.

Yet here we are, in the 21st century, a nation in despair, and who do we look to for salvation? Not Superman. Not the white-haired well-dressed silver-tongued politicians who have broken our hearts by selling out for bribes. Not the business leaders who, as it turns out, have looted our country, stolen Grandma's wallet and dad's car, forged a deed and even sold the family home, left us all unemployed, hungry, penniless. So who do we turn to?

Economists. The unlikeliest heros.

I can't read any article anymore that doesn't include a reference to Paul Krugman, and the most recent brilliant thing he's said. He's on all the TV shows. I swear I expect him to be doing a guest appearance on Gossip Girl any week now. And to show up on Dancing With The Stars -- he probably does a mean Tango. The man is just too smart, too accomplished, and too cute for words.

There's one photo montage I keep seeing on-line that shows Paul Krugman and George Clooney right next to each other. Hint hint: Paul's just as good looking as George Clooney. But I think that was put together by the President of the Sioux City Chapter of the Paul Krugman fan clubs, and they're all pretty fanatic Klugmanites in Sioux City. But decide for yourself:

Here's a link to his blog, and through there to articles and books. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/ Here's another link to his New York Times articles and his impressive credentials. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/paulkrugman/index.html

Here's a link to Democracy Now, Amy Goodman interviewing Paul Krugman about the Treasury's plan to pay $1.0 Trillion of taxpayer's money to buy garbage assets from the Wall Street Criminals. http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/23/the_zombie_ideas_have_won_paul

President Obama: are you listening? We like Paul Krugman. We want you to choose him and get rid of the Wall Street insiders who have been running things. (You know -- the same people who stole the money in the first place).

You know how the banks put exploding purple ink inside the bundles of money, so when the bank robbers open up the bundle they get purple ink all over them? I sometimes think that all these people, the insiders, must be wearing heavy pancake make-up to cover up the purple ink all over their faces and hands.

Let's bring in someone who is not so much a Wall Street Insider. Like Paul Krugman. Are you listening, President Obama?

See? Don't they look good together?


You always get the feeling that Paul Krugman is actually trying to help the country. Isn't that what we want? And strangely, I do not agree with him on all the issues. But he just seems like he's using his abilities to try to provide the best analysis he can. As opposed to so many of the insiders who lie all the time, and only promote ideas that they think will make them richer.

I guess it's the difference between someone trying to serve their country, and someone trying to rob it blind. It's kind of sad that there are so few public figures anymore who, like Mr. Krugman, honestly seem to be using their best efforts to serve the country, advance its interests, instead of just trying to line their own pockets. This is kind of like one of those disaster films: the ship is about to sink, building to burn down, airplane to explode, and the frantic citizens desperately turn to one man to rescue them: THE ECONOMIST! I don't know what the costume will look like, but I'll bet the story would be a real nail-biter.

President Obama: you should choose Mr. Krugman now. Bring him in as your official advisor. Do it soon, just like so many of us have been politely, so far, asking you to do. Do it now, before the Paul Krugman National Fan Clubs have their rally in August. I'm concerned that if you have not recruited Paul Krugman to join your team by then, those fans could get really ugly.