Some Paul Krugman fans -- no, with a guy that classy we should say, "devotees" -- may not know he has both an official website at Princeton and an unofficial website which is apparently run by a devotee who comments on Krugman (as well as people who comment unfavorably on the popular, influential and, therefore, sometimes controversial New York Times columnist) .Also available at the unofficial site is another archive of Krugman's commentaries. Krugman's publisher also maintains a website for his forthcoming textbook (written in collaboration with Wells-Someone-or-Other). A chance to win an iPod for Mac or Bill is offered if you take a tour of the site, You can access that through Krugman's official website.


Krugman's most recent piece found on the official site, is Serfs Up! a look at the rise and fall of the feudal institution of serfdom. Here's a sample:

But now suppose that for some reason land becomes abundant, and labor scarce. Then competition among landowners will tend to push up wages of free workers, and the ruling class will try, if it can, to pin peasants down and prevent them from bargaining for a higher standard of living. In Russia, it was all about gunpowder: suddenly steppe nomads were no longer so formidable, and the rich lands of the Ukraine were open for settlement. Serfdom was an effort to keep peasants from taking advantage of this situation. (And if I've got it right, those who were venturesome enough to run away and set up outside the system became Cossacks.)

Meanwhile, the New World opened in the west. Sure enough, the colonizing powers tried various forms of indentured servitude - making serfs of the Indians in Spanish territories, bringing over indentured servants in Virginia. But eventually they hit on a better solution, from their point of view: importing slaves from Africa.

This column -- it it is a column -- does not appear to be in today's NYT.