Let Bygones Be Bygones? Paul Krugman Thinks Not:

Paul Krugman joins Frank Rich of The New York Times, in calling for investigations and prosecutions of members of the Bush administration once Barack Obama takes office. Krugman makes his case in today's Times:

about Mr. Obama: while it’s probably in his short-term political interests to forgive and forget, next week he’s going to swear to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That’s not a conditional oath to be honored only when it’s convenient.

And to protect and defend the Constitution, a president must do more than obey the Constitution himself; he must hold those who violate the Constitution accountable.

Krugman points out that the criminal behavior that took place under the Reagan administration got a pass for the most part, as the country attempted to "move on," but that only enabled the same behavior in the current Bush administration, including allowing some of the same perpetrators to participate again.

Efficient Markets:

Republicans have tried to sell the country on the notion that markets are efficient for years now. We should dump Social Security, they told us, and put our money in the stock market. It would make everyone's golden years truly golden.

What they didn't tell us is that the first principle of the market place is a fool and his money are soon parted. David Brooks, a conservative Republican, points us to what Andrew Lo of M.I.T. has to say on the stock market: "Lo … has demonstrated, if stock traders make a series of apparently good picks, the dopamine released into their brains creates a stupor that causes them to underperceive danger ahead." (Lo might have bee analyzing the Bush administration.)

Economics is not a science, folks, regardless of what the prof you had in college had to say. Not if by "science" you mean being able to accurately evaluate the future longer than a few days. Economics is about buying cheap and selling dear. On the other hand, if you prof told you, "I can tell you what happened in the past so that you can guess at what might happen in the future," then you've found someone you might be able to trust.