Conscience of a Liberal - Review

Full Disclosure: I am a HUGE PAUL KRUGMAN fan. I have read several of Krugman's books and can't seem to ever disagree with him!

I originally read this book in college, a suggested reading from the economics department chair head. Dr. Dahms, the economics department head, had recently read The Conscience of a Liberal and had a lot of faith in what Paul Krugman wrote about in the book and asked me to check the book out.

I believe Dr. Krugman is especially relevant now. Dr. Krugman has an incredible insight in what the market is generally doing, and has an almost Nostradamus-like-ability to predict the immediate and medium term future with amazing efficiency!

Here's an email I had emailed to Dr. Dahms about The Conscience of a Liberal back in 2007 after reading it:

"The economist that I admire the most would have to be Paul Krugman. I've read several of his books (The Great Unraveling and The Conscience of a Liberal), as well as keeping up with his opinion articles in the New York Times . I admire the way he has been able to take economic and political science issues and meld them together. He has an eloquent way in which he both approaches and explains a topic.

Krugman has had a very overwhelming impact on how I view topics. He has an impressive record on the way he reported the impact of the September 11th flight hijackings and how he has been critical of the Bush Administrations' spending and tax proposals. On top of which I find it interesting that he is able to bring some pretty complex economic ideas (such as social spending programs in The Conscience of a Liberal ) to a very diverse and wide market.

Krugman is as close to a rock-star that economics has. He's outspoken (however stammers when nervous), and very confrontational. Both are things I identify with, and perhaps is why I look up to him.

Overall he is a brilliant Economist, teaching at Princeton with one best-selling novel (and soon to be two). He wrote the International Trade textbook for Dr. Kim's (another economics professor) class (which I recently found out that Dr. Kim is a staunch Republican), making Dr. Kim's selection of the book even more fascinating."

I stand by those words more now (2010) than I did in 2007. Paul Krugman has been dead-on with a lot of the issues he discusses in The Conscience of a Liberal and should be relieved some by the passage of some sort of public healthcare (nearly the main emphasis in The Conscience of a Liberal). Additionally, Dr. Krugman calls for further regulation of financial markets and a more equitable way to distribute the rewards of all of our labor; rather than Gilded Age tax code kickbacks and a good 'ole boy network.

I recommend The Conscience of a Liberal to any one who wants to see the other side to financial regulation, that isn't represented by a bought politician or lobbyist. This book is honest, almost too honest and eerily accurate on what has occurred and what may be in the future if we don't start making the changes now!