Paul Krugman
Distinguished Professor of Economics, CUNY Graduate Center. On 1 show, 1 appearance, plus 2 compilation re-airs not counted. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
academicauthorjournalistanalyst@paulkrugman ↗web.mit.edu/krugman/www ↗Wikipedia ↗YouTube ↗
Paul Krugman won the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on New Trade Theory and New Economic Geography. He served as an op-ed columnist for The New York Times from 2000 to 2024 and authored books including The Return of Depression Economics.
1shows
1appearances
41statements
5resolved
3supported
2contradicted
60%fully supported
15said about them ↓ Everything Paul Krugman said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Paul Krugman predicts most crypto projects will look like Pets.com by 2033
“My guess is, however, that I think I don't actually believe that we're at the dawn of a new age. I actually believe that we're at the that that most of this 10 years back, 15 years, 15 years from now, it will look a lot like Pets.com.”
Krugman: Significant probability Bitcoin's value eventually drops to zero
“Now, I'm not a hundred percent sure of that, but maybe, ah, ah, but I think that there's a certainly a, I would say a quite significant probability that the whole thing just drops to zero, ah, because I have not yet seen any reason why this has to be a valuabl…”
Paul Krugman says crypto offers no unique utility over traditional methods
“It's not at all clear even now that there's anything that you can do with crypto that you can't do other ways. But, you know, obviously if something comes along that I, I'm happy to see it, but I don't see it now.”
Paul Krugman argues Bitcoin mining energy efficiency gains are self-defeating
“Bitcoin is what people are owning now in large value, and any gains in energy efficiency just gets swallowed up very quickly. You just push further into that margin, and it, ah, it, it's, ah, it's a self-defeating form of progress.”
Paul Krugman predicts only one or two cryptocurrencies will survive
“There will not be 1600 cryptocurrencies out there. There will be one or two.”
Krugman: Crypto uses advanced tech to regress monetary history 300 years
“From the point of view of monetary economists, we're exploiting cutting edge, ah, computer science, ah, to set the clock back 300 years.”
Krugman: Crypto replaces institutional trust with digital gold-biting
“So, the interesting thing about all of this shift to cryptocurrency is it's saying, let's throw away This technology, it's more, it's a social technology rather than a, you know, a mathematical technology, but let's throw away the social technology of repeated…”
Krugman: Governments will quickly strip away crypto freedom if Bitcoin becomes serious
“And if Bitcoin became really a serious, well, ok, it you'd be amazed at how quickly whatever freedom you think you're getting via the blockchain would disappear.”
Krugman: Bitcoin mining costs will always expand to extreme levels
“Bitcoin circulation will always expand to drive the cost of producing a Bitcoin up to the point of being insane.”
Krugman: Cryptocurrency shows no sign of becoming real money
“The one thing I will say is so far cryptocurrency shows no sign whatsoever Of becoming currency. Whatever it's doing, it's not money.”
Paul Krugman predicts blockchain will not undermine Amazon or tech incumbents
“I don't believe that blockchain is going to undermine Amazon or any of these people, because The reason I use Amazon is not because of power, or the, not the power of Amazon, but the power of laziness.”
Paul Krugman says uninformed retail investors are getting ripped off in crypto
“My barber actually did ask me if he should put all of his money in Bitcoin. So this is not, this stuff is not hypothetical, it's for real, and there's a lot of, Uninformed people getting ripped off.”
Krugman: Only South Sudan and Venezuela have inflation over 50%
“So let me give you a comprehensive list of the countries that currently have inflation exceeding 50% a year. South Sudan and Venezuela. End of story.”
Krugman: Severe monetary crises are political issues technology cannot fix
“Cryptocurrency is not going to put food in the stores when there's no food in the stores, right? It's not, it's a, it's not fund, Venezuela's problem is not fundamentally a monetary problem, and most really severe monetary problems are not. Most really severe …”
Krugman: Best bull case for Bitcoin is acting like cash hoards
“The best argument I could possibly be persuaded for on, on the question of Bitcoin Is that Bitcoin will become like gold or high denomination notes. It'll be something that people hold in their stashes in, in in Buenos Aires, or actually high denomination euro…”
Krugman: Gold and cash are backstopped by real-world utility
“What I would say, however, is that both gold and hundred dollar bills have a, now, first time I said this, I said they, they're, they are tethered to reality. And then it turned out that that was a bad word to use when talking about, to crypto people. So, so t…”
Paul Krugman sees no sign Bitcoin is becoming a widespread payment method
“There's very little sign that it is becoming any kind of widespread means of payment, and that's 10 years on.”
Paul Krugman says Secret Service enforcement prevents high-quality currency counterfeiting
“Mostly the main obstacle to people producing high quality counterfeit, ah, dollar bills is the fact that the Treasury Department, the Secret Service will track you down”
Paul Krugman says crypto will struggle to surpass traditional institutional trust
“We developed this, you know, socially ingenious thing, which is enduring institutions that have a reputational stake in, ah, in safeguarding the value of the, ah, of the tokens they create, and, we're throwing all of that out, and it's gonna be really, really …”
Paul Krugman argues government interest in blockchain is driven by trendiness
“Government officials are as, ah, ah, you know, they read the same magazines, they, ah, no one reads magazines. They read the same social media as everyone else, and, ah, and want to be trendy. And, ah, you know, the trendiness is a very big factor in all of th…”
Paul Krugman says 2000s financial innovation was mostly regulatory arbitrage
“The high tide of financial innovation in, in, in other respects, non-crypto financial innovation, was in a period roughly, you know, 2000 to 2007, and the great bulk of that innovation was essentially just doing an end run around regulations.”
Paul Krugman calls Katie Haun's defense of crypto the best he's heard
“And this was the best, far and away the best defense of crypto that I've heard.”
Krugman: Fiat currency value is backstopped by taxes and state force
“What keeps most currencies valuable is the belief that, well, two things. The belief that governments will exercise restraint in issuing currency, ah, and the fact that legally you can pay taxes. So if you like, the thing, whole thing is backstopped by, ah, by…”
The other half of the tape: Paul Krugman's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 13 times in 7 episodes across the shows. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Noah Smith 4Marc Andreessen 3Sonal Chokshi 2Ben Horowitz 2Chris Dixon 1Balaji Srinivasan 1
Statements about Paul Krugman, by other people (2)
Dixon: Paul Krugman makes basic mistakes and hasn't read the whitepaper
“You read, like, Paul Krugman or something, and they just, he makes very basic mistakes about Bitcoin, and clearly has not read the paper, and so it's hard to take those seriously”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
the a16z Podcast 13
2025 7 mentions in 2 episodes 4 per episode
2024 2 mentions in 1 episode
2022 1 mention in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Paul's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a16zLEDGER | Distinguished Professor of Economics, CUNY Graduate Center | 1 +2 | 41 | 60% 3/5 | full record on the a16z Podcast → |