The Krugman Rally

The Dow Jones Industrial Average market goes up 900 points on news that Paul Krugman received the Nobel Prize for Economics, err, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel! I have been reading commentary all day—the funniest was a one line post on the National Review Blog—“Lets get this over with—congratulations Professor Krugman.” The most trenchant comment was one hailing Krugman as an at times lonely voice of progressive Keynesianism. For progressive economic thinkers, the past month has been the equivalent of what the fall of Communism was to free market thinkers, a devoutly to be hoped for confirmation of their hopes and dreams, as the rival economic system crashed and burned all around them. Yes, history is a harsh mistress, and reverses will come again (though hopefully not on Nov 4th) but today is a day to treasure.