Reuters: Oddly Enough: Estonia president has tweet for "smug" Paul Krugman

Reuters: Oddly Enough Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Estonia president has tweet for "smug" Paul Krugman Jun 7th 2012, 13:23 Tweet Share this Email Print Analysis & Opinion The hard challenges for Europe, an overly soft continent Why isn't the euro falling even further? Estonia's President Toomas Hendrik Ilves reviews the honor guards at Belem Palace in Lisbon December 16, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Hugo Correia TALLINN | Thu Jun 7, 2012 9:23am EDT TALLINN (Reuters) - The president of small euro zone nation Estonia took to the Twitter-sphere on Thursday to launch a bitter attack on renowned economist Paul Krugman after the U.S. Nobel laureate questioned the Baltic state's economic recovery from a deep crisis. "Let's write about something we know nothing about & be smug, overbearing & patronizing: after all, they're just wogs," President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said in a post on the social networking site early on Thursday. "Let's sh*t on East Europeans: their English is bad, won't respond & actually do what they've agreed to & reelect govts that are responsible," he added later. His office confirmed the tweets were from Ilves. He was responding to a blog by Krugman on the New York Times website, which called the 2008-2009 output drop in Estonia a "depression-level slump", followed "by a still incomplete recovery". "Better than no recovery at all, obviously â€" but this is what passes for economic triumph?" Krugman wrote. Ilves's office said in an emailed statement that the president's comments were "a sincere and immediate defense of the major and often difficult efforts of Estonia to deal with the economic crisis and to stick to the rules adopted in the European Union". Ilves was born in Stockholm in 1953 after Estonia was annexed by the former Soviet Union and was raised in the United States. He has long been an eloquent and outspoken spokesman for his small nation, which joined the euro zone in 2011 and whose economy grew 4 percent in the first quarter of this year. Estonia also has a tiny amount of sovereign debt, making it one of the fiscally soundest members of the indebted euro zone. (Reporting by David Mardiste and Patrick Lannin, editing by Paul Casciato) Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (2) wog – western oriental gentleman estonia is not in the orient krugman's opinion is like gonorrhoea – only a risk for the financially promiscous Jun 07, 2012 9:20am EDT  --  Report as abuse wog – western oriental gentleman estonia is not in the orient krugman's opinion is like gonorrhoea – only a risk for the financially promiscuous Jun 07, 2012 9:20am EDT  --  Report as abuse See All Comments » Add Your Comment

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