Why Can't We Deal With the Right Issues?

TW: Economist uses the Newsweek Krugman piece to frame a real issue. Others have mentioned the same thing with the cover story Newsweek put out this week. The story implies one thing, Krugman as a strong lefty critic of Obama's econ policies, but then proceeds to spend the vast majority of the article focused on Krugman's personality.

If we as a nation are to address the considerable challenges facing us, we need to have good debates. Those debates are occurring in the blogosphere. On the specific issue mentioned below, bank nationalisation, the debate rages to and fro with very well-informed economists dealing out their views. MSM misses most of this, however, some of it is structural, some of it is simply that most of us cannot keep up with the complexity of the debates.

Ultimately the Economist blogger's point is simply that ideology is much easier to define, trumpet and argue than practical executional policies. We should all keep that in mind as we sort through the information, disinformation, hyperbole, demagoguery and politics associated with these various crises permeating our country at the moment.

From the Economist:
"...that's what Newsweek can do—profile a big personality. They're not up to the task of answering the big questions on banking policy, and probably wouldn't even know where to begin.

...To me, the problem is that we're having the wrong conversations. Newsweek is writing about Paul Krugman instead of writing about what Paul Krugman is saying. The rest of the financial press overwhelmingly casts the nationalisation debate in ideological terms, rather than focusing on the practical challenges. And Mr Krugman, who should be well aware of the practical challenges, particularly as they are embodied in the populist Congress and the bottleneck Senate, focuses his ire instead on the administration, which can only operate within the leeway extended by the legislature.

If this story represents anything, it's our monumental ability to miss the point. And in that sense, it is a damning indictment of decision making in America. "
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2009/03/let_us_now_talk_about_paul_kru.cfm