Journalists tend to portray themselves as cool, detached observers of life, even when they are linked closely with the statist establishment.
That?s why Evan Thomas caught my attention in the latest Newsweek, in a profile of Paul Krugman:
If you are of the establishment persuasion (and I am), reading Krugman makes you uneasy. You hope he’s wrong, and you sense he’s being a little harsh (especially about Geithner), but you have a creeping feeling that he knows something that others cannot, or will not, see. By definition, establishments believe in propping up the existing order. Members of the ruling class have a vested interest in keeping things pretty much the way they are. Safeguarding the status quo, protecting traditional institutions, can be healthy and useful, stabilizing and reassuring. But sometimes, beneath the pleasant murmur and tinkle of cocktails, the old guard cannot hear the sound of ice cracking.
It?s likely that Thomas offers Krugman the benefit of the doubt because of the latter?s previous record as a reliable critic of the Bush administration. I wonder whether Thomas will question his devotion to the establishment when he hears critiques from other quarters, such as economists with better comprehension of the problems plaguing our economy.
