Because the era in which Krugman honed his voice was also the era in which — he outlines in the introduction to his new book, ”The Great Unraveling” — American conservatives seized control of the U.S. government and, under cover of a rhetoric of ”compassion,” remade the nation’s finances, laws and foreign policy with unprecedented ideological zeal and putschlike audacity.

putsch (n) : a sudden and decisive change of government illegally or by force [syn: coup d’etat, coup, takeover] – source: Why the N. Y. Times ruins Bush’s breakfast