RE: Re: Re: say it ain't so, Paul

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Alan asks:>Did PK _return_ the $50K or did he just pocket it and then
criticize?<

Jim Devine: I doubt it, since he gets a lot of payments from corporations
(as indicated by the letter below, in today's Los Angeles TIMES) and he
seems to see them as payments for specific services rendered:

[to the editors of the L.A. TIMES, 1/24/02:]

 Your Jan. 19 editorial ("Enron's Far-Reaching Web") conveyed the impression
that (a) I was in some sense on the take from Enron and (b) I hid that
involvement. Both impressions are totally false.

In 1999 I briefly served on Enron's advisory board. I ended that connection
when I agreed to write for the New York Times in the fall of 1999.

I also disclosed that past relationship the very first time I mentioned
Enron, in a column sharply criticizing the company's role in California's
energy crisis, in January 2001.

Enron paid members of its advisory board $50,000 for attendance and
presentations at two meetings (one of mine was canceled at the last minute),
each spanning two business days. This payment, as a daily rate, was if
anything somewhat less than I was regularly receiving for presentations to
other companies: At the time, as an expert on international financial
crises, I was in high demand as a speaker.

Your editorial quotes my remark that the board "had no function I was aware
of." This was self-deprecating humor: I later wondered whether the board was
of much direct value to the company. However, I devoted as much time and
effort to my presentations as I would have for any other corporate event.

Given how scrupulously I have followed the strict conflict-of-interest rules
at the New York Times, and how tough I have been on Enron this past year, I
am astonished that the Los Angeles Times would imply that I had any ethical
lapses.

Paul Krugman

Columnist, New York Times


-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Cibils
To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 1/24/02 6:00 AM
>Subject: [PEN-L:21834] Re: Re: say it ain't so, Paul


Did PK _return_ the $50K or did he just pocket it and then criticize?

Alan

At 1/24/2002, you wrote:

>On Wed, 23 Jan 2002, Carl Remick wrote:
>
> > >Frankly, I don't think that Paul Krugman is corrupt, at least not
in the
> > >sense of personal venality.
> >
> > How do you define personal venality?  PK got $50K for a do-nothing
> > advisory position transparently concocted to give Enron greater
> > intellectual respectability.
>
>Yeah, but to be fair, it was Krugman who publicized the money,
unprompted,
>a year ago, back when Enron was still riding high -- and when he
started
>writing a long series of columns excoriating Enron and its influence
over
>the Bush administration and the way it was screwing California.  I
thought
>he was a pretty strong critical voice on both issues, and almost alone
>among establishment economists.  So if venal means allowing the money
to
>hush or soften your opinions, he wasn't venal.  I think rather Enron
has a
>beef against him for being disloyal :o)
>


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