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Comment by salient | Hacker News Reader

I wouldn't go to Krugman for technology insights. This is the same guy who basically said the Internet has no future, and now he's repeating it for Bitcoin.

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He came around on the Internet (and admitted his mistake), and now believes there will be large productivity gains from Big Data.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/the-dynamo-and-b...

Edit: I realize I'm not addressing your larger point. He still may not be the guy to go to. But that being said I think his opinions are more nuanced.

Edit 2: Another post by him on the value of ICT: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/the-ict-revoluti...

No doubt that when bitcoin's success is obvious, he will also admit his mistake and go on to make another uninformed prediction.

I personally find that people who admit their mistakes more trustworthy because it shows they can at least learn from them. In this case, the jury is very much still out on whether BTC will succeed as a currency, and not as a protocol that's useful for some other thing (or many other things), which seems to be the crux of Krugman's argument.

So don't go to Krugman for technology insights. Go to him for economic insights. Consider the recent discussion about "positive vs. normative economics". It's a similar point here.

There are Bitcoinistas who would like governments to abolish their own currencies and make Bitcoin the currency of the land, or perhaps adopt a Bitcoin-standard akin to a gold standard.

Those are economic policy proposals. Are they good ideas? It makes sense to listen to what economists have to say when you are trying to figure out the answer.

Except in this case he's only quoting John Levine.

He's quoting a friend of his who happens to agree with him. Shocking.

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