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Estonia bites back, and then some

This is delicious about Professor Paul Krugman.

The president of Estonia chewed out Paul Krugman on Wednesday, using Twitter to call the Nobel Prize-winning economist “smug, overbearing & patronizing,” in response to a short post on Estonia’s economic recovery. Krugman’s 67-word entry, entitled “Estonian Rhapsody,” questioned the merits of using Estonia as a “poster child for austerity defenders.” He included a chart that, in his words, showed “significant but still incomplete recovery” after a deep economic slump.

This paragraph packs its own, statistically-deadly punch in the direction of the New York Times columnist:

Estonia, which in 2011 became the latest country to join the eurozone, has been heralded by some as an austerity success story. That year, it clocked a faster economic growth pace than any other country in the European Union, at 7.6 percent. Estonia is also the only EU member with a budget surplus, and had the lowest public debt in 2011 — 6 percent of GDP. Fitch affirmed its A+ credit rating last week.

Update: Dan Mitchell weighs in with some damning data of his own against Krugman.

6 comments to Estonia bites back, and then some

  • Eurymachus

    Ahh Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning smug, overbearing and patronising economist of choice for the smug overbearing and patronising leftist troupe.

    I do enjoy the blatant credentialism the left always displays with Paul Krugman. I am not sure I have ever seen him mentioned without the obligatory Homeric epithet of “the Nobel Prize-winning”.

    A smug, overbearing and patronising epithet for a smug, overbearing patronising group. Its use betokens nothing so much as an unspoken: ‘you shall be quiet and agree with whatever senseless thing that is written, regardless of whether it blatantly contradicts reality or not because YOU aren’t Nobel prize winning are you’.

  • RAB

    This horrid little man has seemed never to be off my tv screen in the past few weeks, and I don’t watch much tv. Newsnight, Hard Talk etc, and in the leftie prints like the Guardian of course. He has a book to push it seems.

    He thinks he’s Cassandra, I think he’s Pandora.

  • Snorri Godhi

    Good to see this story on most of my favorite blogs.
    However only one of them
    (a) debunked Krugman’s “factual” claims;
    (b) pointed out that the President of Estonia is (or was, before becoming the leader of all Estonians) a social democrat, not some sort of crazed social darwinist.

    Here it is:
    http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/estonia-and-austerity-another-exploding-cigar-for-paul-krugman/

  • John K

    It’s just a shame for Estonia that they were foolish enough to join the Euro precisely at the time it began to implode. I hope it won’t take them down with it.

  • I think Estonia is still rather thrilled at being free from the Soviet boot to worry much about Euro.

  • Paul Marks

    Paul Krugman is a LIAR.

    He says things he knows (because has been sent the data – many times) are not true.

    The way to deal with a LIAR is to call them out.

    To denounce them for being a LIAR, to their face.

    As long as he is treated with respect he does not deserve (as the “great Nobel”) he will carry on like he is.

    And the BBC/Guardian entity will carry on trotting him out.