Wednesday afternoon, the president of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, contemptuously fired back at Paul Krugman, the New York Times leftist columnist who hilariously fancies himself an expert on financial matters.
Krugman’s column, which came out earlier in the day, started the contretemps by derisively referring to Estonia’s financial comeback like this:”Since Estonia has suddenly become the poster child for austerity defenders — they’re on the euro and they’re booming! — I thought it might be useful to have a picture of what we’re talking about.”
A chart tracking Estonia’s GDP since the first quarter of 2007 followed, which showed the first quarter of 2007 GDP at almost 100, then dipping to 80 in the third quarter of 2009, and then rising steadily to over 90 in the present.
Krugman then sniveled, “So, a terrible — Depression-level — slump, followed by a significant but still incomplete recovery. Better than no recovery at all, obviously — but this is what passes for economic triumph?”
Ilves wasted no time in his response with a series of caustic tweets.
First: “Let’s write about something we know nothing about & be smug, overbearing & patronizing: after all, they’re just wogs.”
Then: “Guess a Nobel in trade means you can pontificate on fiscal matters & declare my country a ‘wasteland.’ Must be a Princeton vs Columbia thing.”
And then: “But yes, what do we know? We’re just dumb & silly East Europeans. Unenlightened. Someday we too will understand. Nostra culpa.”
Finally, the coup de grace: “Let’s sh*t on East Europeans: their English is bad, won’t respond & actually do what they’ve agreed to & reelect govts that are responsible.”
A president who stands tall for austerity? If only…
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