 Which would Fishman not use to describe Brian Arthur?
In effect, he is accusing Brian Arthur, a man he calls a "nice guy," of being a fabricator or a liar. Evidently, Krugman felt four years ago that Arthur's contribution was important enough to merit a prominent mention in his book. Now, he dismisses the same work, saying it "didn't tell me anything that I didn't already know." Among many other things, Complexity tells the story of the Irish-born economist Brian Arthur and how he came to champion a principle known as "increasing returns." However, I am not so ignorant of the canons of journalism (and of common sense) that I would take a plausible fellow like Brian Arthur at face value without checking up on him.
 vain
 innovative  vain  a nice guy  intelligent