The fact that this is published in the New York Times cannot be seen as even remotely indicative of the opinions of the New York Times Company ($NYT). Krugman

The fact that this is published in the New York Times cannot be seen as even remotely indicative of the opinions of the New York Times Company ($NYT). Krugman is a columnist. The NYT cannot tell him what to write (and they have strict editorial practices, so I doubt that they would even try). Furthermore, a columnist can write essentially whatever they want and the paper will have to publish it. This is part of the agreement when a paper brings on a columnist (and why they must choose them carefully) - they are entering a semi-binding[0] contract to publish anything that the columnist says in the future, without actually knowing what that will be. [0] I say "semi-binding" because it's not a legal contract, but it is a matter of industry ethics, and the New York Times has a good track record of holding to these.