June 09, 2012
Paul Krugman and Toomas Henrik Ilves
But yes, what do we know? We’re just dumb & silly East Europeans. Unenlightened. Someday we too will understand. Nostra culpa.
Let’s sh*t on East Europeans: their English is bad, won’t respond & actually do what they’ve agreed to & reelect govts that are responsible.
Chill. Just because my country’s policy runs against the Received Wisdom & I object doesn’t mean y’all gotta follow me….
Sorry, not conserv. or leftist. Just can’t fathom why following agreed upon EU fiscal rules justifies smug & snide gloating re: my country.
Ilves, who was born in Estonia but raised in New Jersey, also linked to an essay he”d written in March titled “I”ll Gladly Pay You Tuesday“”a reference to the hamburger-mooching Popeye character named Wimpy. Ilves’s essay asserted that “privilege without merit leads to Soviet-style stagnation” and that progressive economists naively posit “some kind of utopian convergence” at an unspecified point in the future.
Under 50+ years of Soviet occupation (AKA “Occupy Estonia”), that “utopian convergence” never occurred.
Above and beyond the odd pleasure of watching an Eastern European head of state employing hip-hop slang and cartoon references was the fact that Ilves turned the tables on Krugman and accused him of being an out-of-touch, elitist bigot. (Krugman has frequently dismissed criticism of the New Deal and every Newer, Bigger Deal that comes down the pike as veiled racism.)
Ilves’s cohorts rushed to his defense. Estonian Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi slammed Krugman as a “hack writer and a champion of the [US] president’s policies”:
In reality, Krugman has to a great extent supported the system that created our poverty and which is now over…we cannot solve our poverty according to those recipes”by borrowing money and buying ourselves expensive things.
Aww, SNAP! Krugman done got served!
Estonian Defense Minister Urmas Reinsalu eagerly leaped atop the anti-Krugman dogpile:
Above all, even his most voluminous writings assert that the public sector must grow, be indebted and foster state-sponsored jobs…Estonia is a problem for Krugman because Estonia doesn’t fit into his theoretical model.
That’s right! And your mama’s mama, too!
Although Estonia’s case is hardly representative of Europe or the world’s broader financial woes, it’s refreshing to see politicians barking back at their theory-addled critics like standup comics smacking down a petulant heckler. If there’s any hope at stanching Globalist Government Creep, it may lie with people such as our unapologetically feisty Wogs from the East.
