Paul Krugman Visits Occupy Wall Street Protests (VIDEO)

Paul Krugman went to the Occupy Wall Street protests at Zuccotti Park on Thursday night. He also appeared on "The Rachel Maddow Show" and spoke about his visit.

Krugman, who has been a strong supporter of the protests, recently responded to readers' requests to speak to and join the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Krugman wrote that he would not participate in the protests or address the demonstrators as it crosses the line between advocate and activist, a line he did not want to cross.

He told Maddow on her show Thursday night that he did go down to the protests and described the protesters as "good-natured, mild-mannered group of demonstrators." He added, "these were your neighbors basically down in Zuccotti Park."

Krugman also told Maddow that Occupy Wall Street had successfully changed public discourse to the topics of job creation and economic growth. "The conversation has changed a lot just in the last month or so...just six weeks ago it was all deficits, deficits, deficits, which is the wrong subject." He said this shift in discourse could be attributed to President Obama's jobs bill but also to Occupy Wall Street. "...it's really amazing," Krugman said.

UPDATE: Krugman wrote a blog post on Friday about his trip to Occupy Wall Street.

"Michael Moore gave a short speech, transmitted by the human microphone," he wrote. "I gather that right-wingers are claiming that OWS is anti-Semitic; someone forgot to tell the excellent Klezmer band." He said the people he saw were hardly the sort "that one would expect to shake up the whole national debate. Yet it has — which can only mean one thing: the emperor was naked, and all it took was one honest voice to point it out."

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Comments

[Plissken]

05:55 PM on 10/24/2011

Go Paul go!

(It's nice to have a Nobel prize winner in economics on your side...)

[spud3]

07:59 AM on 10/27/2011

Nothing more than an opinion. Did you know Bevis and Butthead are Krugman's biggest followers.

[ThomastonPaine]

10:42 PM on 10/23/2011

Critically important "must watch" MSNBC Dylan Ratigan Show segment in which Legal Scholar William K. Black powerfully calls out leading economist and NY Times columnist Paul Krugman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP3oRwXI558

"And for that matter, where's Paul Krugman who can't be bothered to use the F-word, this is the five letter "F" word you can use in public, it's called fraud."

* Classic PBS Bill Moyers Interview with Professor Black on Fraud:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04232010/watch.html

[Billyguitar]

10:24 AM on 10/24/2011

Who cares, one detractor out of how many? Black's probably jealous of Krugmann's Nobel prize.

[ThomastonPaine]

01:07 PM on 10/25/2011

How can Krugman and many other leading economists largely ignore that much of the world economy is now based upon fraud, gambling and extortion?

Critically, how can these opaque subversive elements ever be truly factored into economic models?

Isn't an entire field being diminished by this reticence to speak out?

Is this a case of pure academic detachment or capture?

[lawyersgunsandmoney]

09:58 PM on 10/23/2011

really, what we're witnessing across the globe,
is the total end of innocense for democracy and capitalism.

the way it has turned out is that all the corporations have bought out all the leaders
and they all have grabbed hand over fist for all the money in the world. their thoughts: if i don't do it, and do it now, someone else will do it, and that person will be richer and more powerful than i. only a chump would leave this feast early...

it is the nature of capitalism, greed and democracy. unable to fix itself. a broken machine driving itself into the ground. lying to Everyone with platitudes of "freedom" and "democracy" - just trojan
horses of greed and quantum acquisition to a gullable and naive populace, all struggling to make ends meet.

crooks and liars ruled the earth and grabbed as much as they could, while they could and left everyone else hanging out to dry (cry) as untold fortunes were made. the rich now run off to vacation spots known as their houses, across the globe, and let the serfs fight it out for the scraps left on the table.

we all have been had.

[Margo Arrowsmith]

03:07 PM on 10/23/2011

The radical right got as far as they got by redefining the conversation. Now we are doing it and it will work for the people just as well as it did for them.

[rsicorp]

12:20 PM on 10/23/2011

I don't know about you folks, but I don't want my news coming from those who swoon when BHO speaks or for that matter, those who get a tingle up their leg when reporting.

[augiedog55]

01:59 PM on 10/23/2011

chris still get a tingle that goes up his leg when obama speaks.. Thats seems odd.

[Margo Arrowsmith]

03:04 PM on 10/23/2011

Well, then you don't have to worry about Rachel Maddow or Krugman because neither do either of those things.

[Bruce Kettelle]

11:17 PM on 10/22/2011

Meanwhile, former governor Mark Sanford is welcomed by Fox News as a new biased source of nonsensical crap. And the beat goes on...

[kisskins]

02:08 PM on 10/24/2011

And Al Sharpton?

[Bruce Kettelle]

08:49 AM on 10/25/2011

Ditto on Al

[2012change]

09:42 PM on 10/22/2011

OK good-natured, mild-mannered group. I guess he was not there when someone took a dump on a police car.

[Bruce Kettelle]

11:15 PM on 10/22/2011

Go away. Fast.

[augiedog55]

02:00 PM on 10/23/2011

great point. How about the 100's that get arrested daily at ows rallies....Very mild mannered indeed. You never see people getting arrested at a tea party rally do you.

[Margo Arrowsmith]

03:05 PM on 10/23/2011

That say more about the police than the people.

[whitcombc]

09:24 AM on 10/24/2011

There is really no comparison between the two movements. Nobody is funding the OWS protests, while there were millions spent to rent space, pay for permits, feed and seat the Tea Party "Protests". When Obama holds a speech it isn't a "Protest" and when Americans For Progress holds a speech it isn't a protest either. This is a self generated protest against the powers that exist, not a group of people, bussed in and seated in a rented venue, with speakers, speeches and amplified sound, covered from the start by the major Cable news Network. Of course they don't get arrested in Tea Party Gatherings! The people who the OWS are protesting are the Corporate crooks who paid for the Tea Party to exist.

[MamacitaOfLove]

08:49 PM on 10/22/2011

Brilliant man. I'm glad he visited and listened. He went to learn. Only a tr0ll could attack that.

[augiedog55]

02:01 PM on 10/23/2011

a very vanilla answer at best. it was quite enlighting.

[Trishann]

07:57 PM on 10/22/2011

I hope he doesn't work for NPR or he's out of a job.

[cpaigethomas]

05:35 PM on 10/23/2011

There is a difference between going down the protest and talking to the people there and helping to ORGANIZE. NPR has to struggle against the Fox/conservative line that they are liberal so the the last thing they need is a show hosted by a protest organizer. And if this woman has any respect for NPR she would recognize that fact. Plus Paul Krugman is not a host or a reporter.

[ninthraphael]

05:57 PM on 10/22/2011

critical analysis is dead!!! look at the fox audience!

[TheBluesGuy]

08:50 AM on 10/23/2011

Critical analysis is fatal to the Fox audience.

[rsicorp]

12:18 PM on 10/23/2011

I feel for those of you being duped by the mainstream media outlets. You are obedient drones and the dems appreciate you for it. They need all the parrots they can organize..

[Darlene Johnson]

01:37 PM on 10/23/2011

short but right on..

[progressnowpls]

01:48 PM on 10/23/2011

You might extend your sympathy to conservative media viewers, also.

[unionave]

03:30 PM on 10/22/2011

Regardless of how the corporate media tries to portray the protestors the reason for their protests is never talked about .

Here is one example of why they are protesting : Insurance corporations raise their rates annually . If you call about the increase they offer you a lower rate but you will be responsible for more of the payment for the damage . Deductible ! Each year as the rate goes higher you assume more of the responsibility for damages .

Eventually you receive a policy that states nothing is covered but continue to send the money . (facetiousness)

And mandatory insurance makes that possible . For items the insurance corporations have not paid law makers to make insurance mandatory on (yet) the insurance corporations began a campaign of paranoia to scare you in to giving them your money . A la credit cards , property , life . I am sure the corporations did not think that their paranoia would create protests , but that has a lot to do with it . After the corporatist have made life as tenuous as possibly for the average American , paranoia will cause objections .

[ninthraphael]

06:00 PM on 10/22/2011

that's why we need to make public health care public..not privatized! the same reason why we need to make the army, navy, and air force in the hands of the government because all of these are for public safety and security! imagine a world of mercenaries if our military is privatized! nd this what the republican wants. they want to privatize everything, to assure their corporate sponsors profit!

[mertsj]

09:24 PM on 10/22/2011

Great idea. Let's do the same with housing, cars, electricity, natural gas, child care, nursing homes, churches, food, and gas and oil.

Ignorance can be fixed. Stupidity is permanent.

[DrObvious]

02:26 PM on 10/22/2011

I am a bit confused.  Coulda sworn Mr. Krugman thought it inappropriate for him to go to the protests, so he maintained his editorial and journalistic integrity.   

I don't think he's any less credible for having made the trip.   But i respected his rationale for not joining the protest, and this just seems a bit weird to flipflop so quickly and so visibly.

[wsterr]

07:52 PM on 10/22/2011

He visited, but did not join them. He approves of them but is not part of them.

[Mydian01]

11:47 AM on 10/23/2011

i lol'd.. of course your confused, its all that faux noise and conservative radio, its nonsense. we all know that when the protesters asked him to help with the drafting of the demands, he refused because that would have been crossing a line from advocate to activist (something you republicans refuse to adhere to, even though your the loudest to complain about it). walking down to see the protesters is not joining in.

let me repeat that so your no longer confused, walking down to see the protesters and talk to the protesters is NOT joining the protesters.

[Ghost of For Fathers]

01:58 PM on 10/22/2011

Another day in corproate A.

More hypocrisy in the plutocracy.

[Grimaud]

12:27 PM on 10/22/2011

And this is the idiot who used the Broken Window theory for 9/11 ??? He's not worth the ink it takes to print his name.

[ActuallyReads]

04:31 PM on 10/22/2011

Then you must really think he is not worth that Nobel Prize. But so you know, Krugman was accused of "using" the Broken Windows theory after 9/11 when answering a question about the economic impact of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He did not try to advance the principle breaking windows is a good thing.

[sticks n stones]

11:49 AM on 10/23/2011

He was worthy of the Nobel Prize... for his work on New Trade Theory. But when it comes to politics, Krugman is a rank amateur.

[augiedog55]

02:05 PM on 10/23/2011

i saw him a couple eeks ago and he said we needed a space invasion to help our economy. OK.. enogh said

[ninthraphael]

08:32 PM on 10/22/2011

misinformed or what?

[americancolonyinhell]

11:46 AM on 10/22/2011

Don't get me wrong - I'm a fan - but I think it would be spiffy if hair covered Krugman's entire face.

[ActuallyReads]

04:24 PM on 10/22/2011

That would be awesome!