Krugman vs. Hudson on Samuelson

I was alerted by this post on Naked Capitalism to a back-and-forth between Paul Krugman and Michael Hudson on Paul Samuelson.

It started when, on Dec. 14th, the day after Samuelson died, Counterpunch re-published a paper by Michael Hudson from back in 1970, shortly after Samuelson was awarded the recently-established Nobel Prize in Economics.  Here's a tidbit:








Krugman responded to Hudson on his NYT blog. (As one commenter ("attempter") on Naked Capitalism pointed out, Krugman doesn't even mention Hudson by name: "Krugman couldn't even bring himself to write Hudson's name, but just linked to the anonymous post. (Of course K is always very respectful of anyone properly ensconsed in the Establishment, even where he disagrees with them.) Quite the contrast with his protests over how he and others who were correct on Iraq remain marginalized on that subject.") Here is all of Krugman's post:

this reprinted critique
Can it be "scientific" to promulgate theories that do not describe economic reality as it unfolds in its historical context, and which lead to economic imbalance when applied?








L. Randall Wray of the University of Missouri at Kansas City (where Hudson teaches, along with lots of other great heterodox economists, responded on behalf of Hudson at the UMKC econ blog.  Wray says that Krugman's claim that "Samuelson-type economics" won the day because it had something useful to say in response to the Depression is "bizarre, to say the least," and he gives six reasons for thinking so.  Here are the first four:







Read the rest of the post.

And last but not least, here's Michael Hudson's response to Krugman, also at the UMKC econ blog.

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