Oh, so it isn't just us

Robert Barro interviewed by Conor Clarke:

>[Q] Do you read Paul Krugman's blog?

[A] Just when he writes nasty individual comments that people forward.

[Q] Oh, well he wrote a series of posts saying he thought the World War II spending evidence was not good, for a variety of reasons, but I guess...

[A] He said elsewhere that it was good and that it was what got us out of the depression. He just says whatever is convenient for his political argument. He doesn't behave like an economist. And the guy has never done any work in Keynesian macroeconomics, which I actually did. He has never even done any work on that. His work is in trade stuff. He did excellent work, but it has nothing to do with what he's writing about.

[Q] I'm not in a position to...

[A] No, of course not.

[Q] I'm not in a position to know things like the degree to which Paul Krugman counts as a relevant expert on new Keynesian economics.

[A] He hasn't done any work on that. Greg Mankiw has worked in that area.