Rating: 
Summary: The Carl Sagan of Economics
Review: Krugman has a way of putting complex economic concepts in terms that a non-economist can fully grasp, and thereby understand the impact of very important policy decisions that really do impact us day-to-day but are usually obscured in either complexity or BS. His books are must reads for anyone who wants to grasp how all the apparent moving parts of the macro system work together. You may not agree with his views (I happen to) but his communication of the concepts is the best of anyone out there. I liken his writing to what Carl Sagan did for science.
Rating: 
Summary: Krugman lost it
Review: Krugman is so obviously, personally biased against the current administration, it is impossible to consider his views, especially delivered as they are, a snippet at a time. Save your cash. I recommend a real book about power: Machiavelli's The Prince. Educate yourself.
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Summary: Any NYT writer has 2 strikes against them
Review: Any active writer for the NYT is extremely suspect, considering what has been found out recently. Cronyism is not the main problem, merely something that goes on with every administration, including Clinton's. The upper 1-2% has been becoming wealthier at the rest of the countries expense for some time now. Yet that's not where most of the wealth has gone. The wealth has gone to other countries. The U.S. is a debtor nation, and the problem started with deindustrialization many years ago. "The New Economy" or the service sector economy is a failure. America's trade deficit in incredibly high, and this is critical. Without dealing with this problem all the left/right squabbling will be meaningless. The rest of the world owns huge quantities of U.S. dollars (especially China and Japan), U.S. stocks and bonds and U.S. real estate. Even the interest payments are a giant burden on America's economy. In fact, globalism itself is a bubble kept alive by U.S. consumerism. The United States has been involved in a de facto trade war for year, which we have been losing due to the Free Trade Fanatics (yes, I'm calling names, but this name is well earned) on both the right and the left. All other major countries practice some degree of economic nationalism (aka protectionism). Simply put, deindustrialization leading to wealth and jobs leaving the country is the critical problem facing our economy. The other complaints are minor. This is a bipartisan issue, and many people know it. The middle class in this country knows that neither party protects their interests. Yet it is very sad, people are so shallow, and most of you will continue harping along party lines, passing intellectual armor off for intelligence and a true quest for the truth. "The Great Unraveling" is the creaking and groaning of partisan intellectual armor, nothing more.
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Summary: Dishonest polemical screed
Review: Krugman sacrifices honesty - and maybe his judgement - in his hysterical attempts to tar the Bushies. Example 1 of dishonesty: blaming Bush for 3 million lost jobs when his other writings admit that the economy was destined for a painful post-1990s bubble retrenchment with lots of job losses. Example 2 of dishonesty: claiming Bush brought in "the biggest deficits in the history of the planet" -- in real terms (% of GDP) this is a gross misrepresentation and he knows it. Yet he said it without clarifying this. There are lots of examples of this type of dishonesty and unfair dealing. Hard not to lose a lot of respect for an admittedly bright and intelligent academic.
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Summary: George is the 2nd Enron president
Review: OK, I'm a centrist, but I'm not in the middle of the road or sitting on a fence, I despise both the Dims and the Repos. I found this book in the library a few weeks ago and sped read it. How can I do a review after a quick read? Well, partisanship and lack of integrity are easy to spot. It wasn't so much that Paul Boy was wrong, I laughed at some insights, and I figure it might well be worth reading fully some time when I really in a spiteful mood toward President Bush. You can lie by omission. If you only blame the other side for what your side is guilty of too, or you weigh it so that it looks like yours side made a couple of minor mistakes, but the other side is really screwing things up, when in fact both sides really are equally guilty -- you are a liar. You see, I don't have any respect for George Boy -- and yes, I wonder when this really unravels to the point when everyone knows something is WRONG if he will look like a deer in the headlights like Kenny Boy did just before the bankruptcy. But...but, guess what, George is Enron prez #2 or possibly even #3 if you count George's dad. Before 1991, excuses could be made for this "incredibly bad leadership." Let's see now, during the 1990's we had NAFTA and much, much, more... we had the top knowledge workers in our country being replaced by H1-B and L-1 visa holders, we had 15,000 foreign agents and lobbyists taking our politicians to lunch, and we had the largest "tulip mania" in centuries. That so called great economy of Bill Boy or Enron Prez #1 was insanity, a huge bubble, indeed a "tulip mania" that should have ended at least in 1997 or 1996. That bubble did tremendous damage to our economy in the long haul. That is why Paul Boy didn't want to tackle Greenspan too hard, as it leads back to how long these problems have been going on in this country. Bill and Greenspan could have let that bubble pop early and saved us a lot of grief. Oh yeah, about derivatives and other sneaky things, Bill Boy sold us out to the investment bankers and their lobbyists just as much as George Boy has more recently. He helped to "deregulate" and looked the other way a hundred times, and even bailed the investment banks out when the Asian collapse happened. During his watch the trade deficit went up every year, and there were sleazy votes arranged to get even more of those cheap labor foreign visa workers over here. So both sides, get your heads out of your partisan rears, this is a bad, bad problem. Unless you are wealthy, and I mean wealthy, your life is about to take a turn for the worse. And not one of the Dim's candidates being elected is going to help this situation. Nor, of course, will George Boy's reelection. Or for that matter any other Repo. I've a picture on the wall of Hillary Girl, shaking hands with one of Tata's head people as she brought this huge corporation from India over into the state of New York. Tata is owned by India's biggest billionaire and is notorious for "body shopping" programmers to U.S. corporations, often with the deal that the U.S. workers must train their Indian replacements before they can receive severance pay. Under the picture I have written - Hillary, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata! I've been studying the problem for months from a non-partisan position, and I do understand it. This is the death of the U.S. middle class. And most of the "service sector" is in deep cow pucky. After the middle class goes down, in a few years over half the major colleges and universities will close, as the middle class won't be able to afford them, nor will the tax base allow for paying of foreign students tuition, ad agencies will cut their people to the bone, there will be far fewer magazines and newspapers, and even as the U.S. economy becomes less important to the world, the world will be less impressed by our movies and entertainment - expect overseas sales of our movies and music to suffer. If you are in the "talking head" class, you will get pulverized by this over time. Oh well, the talking head class helped to bring it about. The dollar will fall, then the mortgage institutions will follow as their swaps and other derivative underpinnings won't be able to handle all the mortgage defaults, then the real trouble will start. I gave the book 2 stars, inspite of the lack of integrity and lies, as it did amuse me a couple times. Roy
Rating: 
Summary: This books is more than the sum of its parts
Review: Mr Krugman provides unique insight into the direction of the country. His broad situational awareness shows us not only what went wrong, but also where we are going. He shows contempt not just for the right, but for the media and political system that we all too often look away from, trying not to focus too much on the obvious flaws that bring the American democratic republic's legitimacy into question.
I was skeptical of the idea of a collection of collumns, but it worked wonderfully. If you find the ideas in this book deeply flawed, please shed some light upon them with some substance. Otherwise, suck it up...sorry you don't like the bitter truth.
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Summary: What a BORE!
Review: As usual the Left believes that all money belongs to the Federal Government and people are incapable of making decisions for themselves. Has it EVER occurred to Mr. Krugman and the left to cut spending!!
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Summary: The most intelligent political commentar in America
Review: Notice how no one who dislikes this books ever deals with specifics? Notice how Krugman's critics always respond with vague generalities and name calling? Ever notice how often terms like "socialism" and "communism" when it is obvious that they haven't the foggiest conception of what it means. Fact: Paul Krugman is the best informed, most intelligent political commentator in America today. He has been mentioned as a probable Nobel Prize winner in economics (an award that his columns have probably cost him from ever winning--the wing of the Nobel Prize committee that awards the prize is notoriously conservative). That he is not a conservative angers conservatives to the nth degree. He further infuriates them by making series of well reasoned, factually based arguments. Because they are not able to counter his arguments and dispute his facts, they resort to 1) name calling, 2) labeling his ideas as "socialist" (when theya aren't in the least), and 3) changing the subject. Paul Krugman is a breath of fresh air. In an era when the media is cowed by the conservative owners of corporate media, Krugman doesn't duck the facts. When he looks at the facts and is forced to the conclusion that President Bush is lying, he doesn't politely ignore the truth. He calls it like it is. Royce Turner below mentions returning to "market capitalism," which is very definitely not what Bush supports. In his actions from the earliest part of his career, he has engaged in crony capitalism. He believes not in a system of fair compeition, but one in which well placed indiviudals with connections milk those connections for all they are worth. People genuinely concerned is a free market capitalism realize the essential role that regulation plays; otherwise the corporate bullies negate free enterprise through exploiting crony connections.
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Summary: Wake up and act now! Introduction is worth price of book!
Review: I have only begun reading the body of the book, but the Introduction is worth the price of the book. It explains what is going on in this country right now and how it is different than what has gone on before. It explains that those currently in power in this country do not accept the legitimacy of our current politial system and therefore do not play by the political rules that we expect. When faced with such a revolutionary power after a long period of political stability the revolutionary power catches us all by surprise because we are disbelieving that this coud be going on. Please people, read this introduction, think about it, pass it on, and let's act to stop it now, before these people destroy our democracy and the United States as we know it.
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Summary: conservatives worst nightmare
Review: Krugman speaks the facts. Conservatives cannot refute him, because Krugman's conclusions are based on empirically verifiable and repeatable facts. That is why they resort to suggesting he has personality disorders.
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