N.Y. Times Columnist Paul Krugman To Speak on Campus

Economist, New York Times columnist, and frequent critic of the Bush administration Paul Krugman will be speaking on campus next Wednesday, at 8:00 PM in the School of Education’s Schorling Auditorium. Krugman was originally planning to come to Ann Arbor to attend book signings of his new book “The Great Unraveling: Losing our Way in the New Century” at the Ann Arbor District Library and Borders, however his Borders appearance Wednesday night was cancelled due to the strike. Here’s the end of Krugman’s most recent column, in case you’re not sure where he’s coming from:

” … So did Mississippi voters support the Republicans, even though they get very little direct benefit from Bush-style tax cuts, because they — unlike New Jersey’s voters — understand the magic of supply-side economics? If you believe that, I’ve got an overpass on the Garden State Parkway you may be interested in buying.

Now maybe New Jersey voted Democratic because of irrational Bush hatred. But I think it’s a lot more likely that white Mississippi voters, unlike their counterparts up north, are still responding to Republican flag-waving — and it’s not just the American flag that’s being waved.

Yet the fact is that Mississippi, being relatively poor, will lose disproportionately if the right wins on its full agenda, which involves a big rollback of New Deal and Great Society programs. (I’ll explain in a future column how Republicans are using the prescription drug bill to lay the groundwork for later Medicare cuts.)

Mr. Dean wasn’t suggesting that his party adopt the G.O.P. strategy of coded racial signals, and by and large African-Americans — my wife included — understand that. What he meant by his flag remark was that Democrats must make the case to working Americans of all colors that the right’s elitist agenda isn’t in their interest. And he’s right. “

Author: Rob