CUNY to pay Paul Krugman $225,000 to discuss income inequality

Oh, the hypocrisy.

The City University of New York, according to documents obtained by Gawkerwill reportedly pay New York Times blogger and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman $225,000 to serve as a distinguished professor in the school’s Graduate Center and Luxembourg Income Study Center, a research satellite studying income inequality.

A letter Gawker received through a New York Freedom of Information Law request outlined the terms of Krugman’s professorship and his salary of $25,000 per month, or $225,000 over the course of two semesters.

The economist, though, will not “be expected to teach or supervise students,” during his first year serving as a distinguished professor. Instead, the university wrote, Krugman will “be asked to contribute to our build-up of LIS and the inequality initiative and to play a modest role in public events.”

In his second year at CUNY, Krugman will be required to host one seminar per year, the letter read.

The Nobel laureate seemed impressed with the rich deal, according to Gawker, and called the offer “remarkably generous.”

CUNY, a publicly funded school, reportedly pays adjunct professors $3,000 per course. Salaries of tenured professors top $116,364, Gawker reported. Those faculty members, though, are to teach, hold seminars and publish during their time at CUNY.

Krugman’s future colleagues, however, seem comfortable with the offer.

“Perhaps I’m being premature or forward, but I wanted you to have no doubt that we can provide not just a platform for public interventions and a stimulating academic community — especially, as you know, because of our investments in the study of inequality — but also a relatively comfortable perch,” the Graduate Center President Chase Robinson said in an email to the economist.

The Times columnist is a fierce proponent of Keynesian, top-down economics. The university first announced Krugman was joining the faculty in February, though the terms of his hire were unknown.

CUNY previously came under fire after it offered former CIA Director David Petraeus $150,000 to teach a class. The four-star general, though, offered to take only $1 instead.

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