Reader Tim Witkowski notes offers this tidbit in response to Krugman's suggestion that it is somehow un-American to arrange your finances to minimize your tax bill.

Further to your expose of Krugman's campaign of deliberate misinformation, a venerable principle in tax law, perhaps best articulated by the famous Judge Learned Hand in Helvering v. Gregory, 69 F.2d 809 (2d. Cir 1934), is appropriate: "Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes." U.S. v. Isham, 17 Wall. 496, 506, 21 L.Ed. 728; Bullen v. Wisconsin, 240 U.S. 625, 630, 36 S.Ct. 473, 60 L.Ed. 830.

Whose opinions do most people respect more, Krugman's or Hand's? (Don't answer that, it's a rhetorical question.)