Showdown

Paul Krugman and Larry Summers Debate America’s Doom

Economic debates are becoming hot-ticket items, and this week’s faceoff between New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Harvard president Larry Summers was as good as they get. The two debated whether or not the U.S. faces a Japan-style era of high unemployment, with Krugman in agreement and Summers against. “I entered the debate torn, and I exited it that way as well,” writes Reuters economics blogger Felix Salmon. “Krugman’s been so pessimistic for so long, now, that it’s almost impossible to imagine what kind of evidence could get him to change his mind and declare that we’re not headed for a lost decade after all. Summers, by contrast, doesn’t think in forecasts so much as in probability distribution—a much less constricting way of thinking.”