Gordon is "Nobel" Krugman's Man

Congratulations to American economist Paul Krugman whose credentials were already formidable.... professor at Princeton University, columnist for The New York Times... who today was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics.

And today Krugman has also written an op-ed, "Gordon Does Good" (NYTimes) in which he asks, "Has Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, saved the world financial system?"

Not George Bush. Not Henry Paulson. Not Ben Bernanke. But our long-suffering staunch ally, Britain's Gordon in concert with his chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, by thinking clearly and acting quickly.

Krugman explains, "On Wednesday, Mr. Brown’s officials announced a plan for major equity injections into British banks, backed up by guarantees on bank debt that should get lending among banks, a crucial part of the financial mechanism, running again. And the first major commitment of funds will come on Monday — five days after the plan’s announcement."

"And," Krugman continues, "whaddya know, Mr. Paulson — after arguably wasting several precious weeks — has also reversed course, and now plans to buy equity stakes rather than bad mortgage securities (although he still seems to be moving with painful slowness)."

For anyone who has watched the painful politicalization of our government by The Decider, even of the office of Attorney General, it'll come as no surprise that Krugman believes that... "It’s hard to avoid the sense that Mr. Paulson’s initial response was distorted by ideology. Remember, he works for an administration whose philosophy of government can be summed up as 'private good, public bad,' which must have made it hard to face up to the need for partial government ownership of the financial sector."

Hopefully Krugman is on Barack Obama's short list for Treasury secretary. In the meantime, on a day when Krugman is receiving bouquets for his prestigious Nobel prize, he is also throwing bouquets of his own.... "Luckily for the world economy, however, Gordon Brown and his officials are making sense. And they may have shown us the way through this crisis.

If we can all just keep a stiff upper lip.

Putin Baits the West

Bass fishing diplomacy has it limits.... actually, our relationship with Russia is much worse after The Decider's yukking-it-up press conference early this month with Russia's President Putin after their Kennebunkport fishing summit to resolve U.S. anti-missile plans for Russia's backyard.

Putin made a show of cooperating with the defense system, offering to place it on Russian soil if Bush abandoned plans for facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic.

When Bush didn't go along with Putin's plan, on Saturday Putin announced that Russia would pull out of the CFE treaty, a landmark pact limiting post-Cold War military strength. "Russia rebuffs NATO talks offer on arms pact." (WaPo)

A hopefully sobered Bush, pushing ahead with his anti-missile plans, met with the Polish President Kaczynski at the White House on Monday.

Great Britain also has serious disagreements with Russia who is refusing to cooperate on a terrorist incident.... just days after London kicked four Russians out of the country, a retaliating "Russia Expels 4 British Diplomats" (WaPo)

Moscow continues to refuse to extradite the Russian former KGB officer, Andrei Lugovoy, who the British accuse of poisoning Alexander Litvinenko.... a fierce critic of Putin.... in London last November using polonium-210.

The case is particularly charged because Litvinenko, who fled from Russia to Britain in 2000 and became a British citizen, suffered a slow and gruesome death. In addition, hundreds of Londoners feared they were exposed when the radioactive substance was found in numerous places causing alarm and panic in the city last November.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said this week that he could not tolerate "lawlessness" in London and would make "no apologies for the action we have taken."

Hear! Hear! Good show, Brown!

Bush should take note of how grownups deal with an increasingly dangerous Putin.... drop the Bush frat boy buddy-buddy approach.... Putin isn't looking for friends.