What, exactly, is it about Paul Krugman that gets the blood boiling for so many pundits?
The Nobel Prize winning economist was the object of derision on Thursday morning, with panelists of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" wondering aloud if he was a crazed anti-capitalist demanding that anyone making a profit be thrown behind bars.
First came Jim Cramer.
"I think Goldman is a great firm," said the CNBC host, still fighting the perception of being a Wall Street apologist. "The good guys are in charge. [Lloyd] Blankfein is a fabulous guy. Do people want him in jail? Does Paul Krugman want him in jail? Where do they want these guys?"
He would be outdone only by Mike Barnicle, who chimed in at that point: "Paul Krugman wants anyone who makes over $75,000 a year in jail."
Right. It would take Time Magazine's Rick Stengel, after declaring that, "all the guys I went to college with" worked for Goldman -- to actually suggest why someone might not be completely enamored with the firm.
"They are all retired now," Stengel said of his friends, "they were retired five years ago. It's like that old joke, I'm glad I got it out while I can, because there's a lot of people -- and I'm not saying these guys did -- took advantage of the lack of regulations, they accumulated their pile, they got away and as the French say, money doesn't have any odor. They're gone. They're happy. They're fine."