'Macro Manners'

How rude is too rude? Paul Krugman answers:

... It wasn’t nice to characterize the doctrine of expansionary austerity as belief in the confidence fairy, but I do believe that it focused the discussion in a way that a less caustic approach would not have achieved. ...

[W]riting effectively requires that you have a voice, that the passion shows... Obviously no four-letter words — and while I may sometimes envy Matt Taibbi his vampire squid, rudeness in my part of the commentariat has to be within certain bounds. But pretending to respect views that you don’t isn’t, and shouldn’t, be part of the job description for economists trying to grapple with these important issues.