"Has Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, saved the world financial system?"

Paul Krugman: Gordon Does Good

the Brown government has shown itself willing to think clearly about the financial crisis, and act quickly on its conclusions. And this combination of clarity and decisiveness hasn't been matched by any other Western government, least of all our own.

(Well, it acted quickly once it announced its decision, but it did wait three weeks to make it, or at least announce it. But maybe it felt it had to wait until events made it clear to lots of other gov'ts and to British banks that no other choice was possible.)

Oh yeah, and Krugman has just been awarded the Nobel Prize.

Diversity

More detailed Nobel statements on Krugman's award are here and here.

An idea that relates to things that people like me, who pay attention to music, think about:

Krugman's new theory was based on an assumption that consumers appreciate diversity in their consumption. At the time, this was a rather new concept in economics, but it appeared to correspond to reality. Indeed, most of us have witnessed greater diversity in the supply of available commodities. As consumers, we are constantly tempted by a growing number of brands, even though we might sense that a standard car, a standard pair of jeans or standard toothpaste would suffice. After our basic needs for food and housing have been satisfied, it seems as if we opt for diversity and variation in our consumption.