I think Krugman is a legit intellectual and doesn't intentionally cherry pick numbers. I followed his blog and such starting when I was a teenager (during the 2008 crisis), and I think he helped me understand what was going on, using fairly rigorous math and data (for a "science" communicator). Few other economic communicators made sense to me at the time. The Austrian school was being pushed heavily by the right and tech-bros, and didn't seem based on anything but vibes.