WASHINGTON — Oh, the things authors will do for book sales.
Nobel prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman went head-to-head with Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian Texas Congressman and the only remaining Republican candidate challenging frontrunner Mitt Romney, on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart" with Trish Regan last week.
Krugman has been making the rounds recently to promote his new book, "End This Depression Now!" but perhaps got a little more than he bargained for during the 20-minute interview.
The Princeton professor may have expected something along the lines of a discussion on why Paul and his supporters continue to wrongly predict runaway inflation, an episode that hasn't occurred. Instead, he found himself responding to criticisms over currency debasement and price controls, which Paul insisted destroyed the Roman Empire.
"Professor Krugman indicates we just want to go back 100 years or so," said Paul, during the interview. "That's not exactly true. We want to improve on what life was like back then. But he wants to go back 1,000 years or 2,000 years just as the Romans and the Greeks and all other countries debased their currency.
"The Roman empire eventually destroyed their currency. They put in wage and price controls before they diluted the metals. They inflated. They thought wealth could come by fooling the people," said Paul.
To which, Krugman responded: "I'm not a defender of the economic policies of the Emperor Diocletian, let's make that clear. I'm a defender of the economic policies that we followed after World War II that produced the best generation of economic growth this country has experienced."
The interview went into other subjects as well including the role of the Fed, debt issues facing the country, and the biggest economic threats facing the U.S.
Following his "debate" with Paul, Krugman posted on his blog exactly why such "face-to-face debates" are pretty much useless, a point he's made before.
"There's no opportunity to check facts (everything Paul said about growth after World War II was wrong, but who will ever call him on it?). So people react based on their prejudices," wrote Krugman. "If Ron Paul got on TV and said 'Gah gah goo goo debasement! Theft!' - which is a rough summary of what he actually did say - his supporters would say that he won the debate hands down; I don't think my supporters are quite the same, but opinions differ."
So, why did he do it? — a question Krugman asks in his blog post.
"Because I'm trying to
