The Awl

Sullivan and Greenwald Down! Krugman Fine! We Check in on Blogger Health

James McAuley — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 12:00:05 +0000

Given that Andrew Sullivan was out sick all last week (asthma and bronchitis) and that Glenn Greenwald was just released from the hospital after contracting dengue fever, we thought we’d ask around and see how some other prominent bloggers are doing in this age of cyber-disease.

Uh oh! New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is taking the day off today from his blog “The Conscience of a Liberal”! But worry not—he's just preparing for the new semester of teaching. And he's going nowhere. Krugman wrote in an email to us that he plans to continue blogging “as long as I think I’m having an impact and/or having fun.” Krugman, who called himself a “proto-blogger,” who formerly used his MIT web page to publish shorter pieces on late-1990s things like the Asian financial crisis, said that he’ll stop blogging “when the amount of stuff I have to say falls below some critical mass." He's fine. But not everyone is!

Greg Mankiw, author of a popular blog that includes info for gung-ho college econ kids and fellow Lady Gaga admirers alike, reports that he has no plans to stop, even though he keeps “an open mind.” He's had his blog for about five years now, and he confesses he’s “slowed down of late.” Uh oh.

Boing Boinger Xeni Jardin reports that she’s “feeling awesome.” Her secret? “I drink Mark Frauenfelder’s homemade kombucha, I do yoga every day, and hug puppies CONSTANTLY. Life is good!” Maybe Glenn Greenwald should be hugging more puppies?

Joshua Green, of The Atlantic and also of the Boston Globe, sounds like he's on a dangerous downslide. "It is nice of you to check in," he wrote. "The dungeon masters here at the Atlantic rarely do, and I *have* been feeling a bit run down lately. Sort of 'gout-y.' I have been blogging for almost a year. Since starting I have slept worse, become sedentary, stopped doing triathalons, lost muscle tone, developed migraines, and become very jumpy. I would happily stop blogging at the drop of the hat."

Make him a blog-free offer, someone!

Finally, some breaking news. Politico’s Ben Smith reported to us a minor injury, but nothing that will prevent him from winning the morning. “I think I have a torn rotator cuff,” he wrote, “thanks for asking.”

James McAuley is a student in Cambridge, Mass.

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Everyone Hates Obama

Alex Balk — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:20:26 +0000

Paul Krugman thinks the Obama administration is doomed: "Stimulus, bank rescue, China, foreclosure; it applies all along. At each point there were arguments for not acting; but the cumulative effect has been drift, and a looming catastrophe in the midterms. Or to put it another way, the administration has never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. And soon there won't be any more opportunities to miss."

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Everyone Gave Up On Explaining Finance To Us Dummies

Choire Sicha — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:10:43 +0000

"OK, so the Kocherlakota dispute followed K's very clear statement that the Fed's current policy of low rates is deflationary. That's sheer nonsense."
-Paul Krugman has lost his helpful parenthetical explanations-and his interest in retaining an audience of layperson readers.

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Surly Blogger Paul Krugman Wants You To Click The Goddamn Links, Okay?

Alex Balk — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:30:06 +0000

We've all been there, Paul: "If you don't understand a brief post like this one, CLICK ON THE LINKS. I'm not putting them there for decorative purposes."

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Angry Paul Krugman Is All Like, "Yeah, Whatever, THAT'S Cool"

Alex Balk — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:55:39 +0000

"So wise policy, as defined by the G20 and like-minded others, consists of destroying economic recovery in order to satisfy hypothetical irrational demands from the markets – demands that economies suffer pointless pain to show their determination, demands that markets aren't actually making, but which serious people, in their wisdom, believe that the markets will make one of these days.

Awesome."
-I don't think Paul Krugman believes it's awesome at all that the deficit hawks of the G20 are calling for austerity measures while battered economies actually require further stimulus if they want to get moving again. In fact, I think he's kind of pissed about it.

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Everything Is Will.i.am's Fault

Dave Bry — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:50:58 +0000

Pop music thing Will.i.am continued his impressive streak of ruining everything last night with his remix of The Who's "My Generation" for www.flo.tv. Yes, it is true, he actually changed the song's words to "Don't wanna die, I wanna get old."

The guy has already single handedly destroyed the value of U.S. currency, America's long-standing policy against torturing prisoners of war, hip-hop, summer, baseball, the environment, the economy and Toyota's safety record. Now he's exploiting the filibuster and his super-majority to delay approval of presidential nominees to bring the government to a standstill. As Paul Krugman notes in today's Times, thanks to Will.i.am's music and television commercials and his terrible dancing and costumes and obstructionism, "we're re-enacting the dissolution of 18th-century Poland."

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New Orleans Rap Moguls Now Also Oil and Gas Moguls

Dave Bry — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:50:52 +0000

God, the news is bad. Bin Laden is calling for "drastic solutions." (More drastic?!) The Italian mafia has been sinking cargo ships full of radioactive waste in the Mediterranean. Paul Krugman should basically start ending his pieces on the administration's economic policy with "but I just saved a bunch of money on car insurance." But know hope: I think we may have found the answers to all these problems, and more: New Orleans rap kingpins Ronald and Bryan "Baby" Williams Williams, cofounders of Cash Money Records, have started an "environmentally friendly" energy company, Bronald Oil & Gas.

From the website:

Bronald Oil & Gas, LLC is an independent oil and gas company focused, on the exploration, production and development of oil and gas reserves from conventional and unconventional formations. The Company is initially focused on exploration and development properties in Osage County, Oklahoma, as well as in Texas, Louisiana and Florida in the United States and in Central America. Bronald's long-term strategy is to grow through development and via the acquisition of prospective acreage that complements its existing assets and exploits the abilities of the Company's technical resources. Bronald is committed to working cooperatively with governments and private enterprise to recover energy from known oil and gas reserves throughout North and Central America in an environmentally friendly manner. Bronald intends to utilize both historically successful technologies and means, as well as new innovations and technology, to recover energy resources in both and economic and environmentally efficient manner. Bronald is committed to preserving the environment, promoting worker safety and maximizing the potential output of various oil and gas assets.

To commemorate his commitment to the company, Baby got a tattoo of an oil derek on his head. Rap might just save us yet.

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Linked Together: Europe, Social Democracy, Tony Judt

Alex Balk — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:35:48 +0000

"Europe is often held up as a cautionary tale, a demonstration that if you try to make the economy less brutal, to take better care of your fellow citizens when they're down on their luck, you end up killing economic progress. But what European experience actually demonstrates is the opposite: social justice and progress can go hand in hand," writes Paul Krugman in today's Times. It is indeed contrary to the narrative you usually hear concerning Europe, and it reminded me of these recent remarks by Tony Judt: "It would be pleasing-but misleading-to report that social democracy, or something like it, represents the future that we would paint for ourselves in an ideal world. It does not even represent the ideal past. But, among the options available to us in the present, it is better than anything else to hand." (And if you haven't already, do read Judt's essay on living with ALS. Make sure you have time to devote your full attention to it, as it is something you should read completely free from distraction.)

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Krugman Got His Shiny Face on This Morning

Dave Bry — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:00:01 +0000

Any time Paul Krugman uses the phrase "I'm feeling optimistic" in his first sentence is cause for celebration. That's what he does in today's op-ed about the climate summit in Copenhagen. (More cause for celebration: free sex for all attending diplomats!) By the end of the piece, he's really eating happy pills. "Let's hope my optimism about Copenhagen is justified. A deal there would save the planet at a price we can easily afford-and it would actually help us in our current economic predicament." Great! But shouldn't that be, "a deal might, maybe, possibly save the planet, if we are very, very lucky, and probably not?"

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See you on the breadline.

Alex Balk — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:50:58 +0000

"All the wise heads will tell us that 8 or 9 percent unemployment – maybe even 10 percent – is the 'new normal', and that only irresponsible people want to do anything about the situation. So what I see is years of terrible job markets, combined with political paralysis."
-Paul Krugman makes me reconsider the wisdom of getting out of bed this morning. Or any morning, for that matter.

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