Leif Pagrotsky on Soros & Stiglitz

One of the interesting global personalities who made the economic discussions at the Bretton Woods Forum organized by the Institute for New Economic Thinking interesting was Swedish Social Democrat Parliament Member Leif Pagrotsky.

In the Twitterverse, Pagrotsky is an inveterate tweeter with about 4,000 followers who get a portal into his smart commentary in Swedish on economic policy. I follow him -- and put Google Translate to work on the stuff he sends out (I'm @SCClemons).

For instance, from a session up at the INET Bretton Woods Meeting at which we were both listening to a Gordon Brown who had managed to reverse the gravity that usually made him seem such a plodding and sluggish political figure, Pagrotsky tweeted:

Lyssnar på Gordon Brown, kåserar om sina minnen som krishanterare. Avspänd, trevlig, nu när han slipper väljarna och Blair

Google Translate of the original Swedish Pagrotsky:

Listening to Gordon Brown, Kaserer about his memories as crisis managers. Relaxed, pleasant, now that he will not have the voters and Blair

"Kaserer" throws me - but the rest is clear and reads almost like haiku.

That said, Pagrotsky is a serious intellectual who worked as a senior official in Sweden's Central Bank and Ministry of Finance before joining the Parliament.

In the video commentary above -- snatched from BigThink -- Pagrotsky comments about financier and economic philosopher George Soros and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz. Pagrotsky had been called a "market fundamentalist" in a panel discussion by Soros -- and in this Pagrotsky responds. What I like in this commentary is that Pagrotsky clearly respects Stiglitz and Soros but defines and stands by differences he has with them.

This is the kind of reasoned debate and presentation that I think this country is letting slip out of view.

-- Steve Clemons

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