Felix Salmon (here) and Powerline (here) do good jobs of pushing back against an attack by David Kocieniewski of the New York Times on two economists, Scott Irwin and Craig Pirrong. Professor Pirrong himself writes here:
there are no coincidences, comrades. The NY Times has been Tiger Beat effusive in its praise for Gary Gensler of the CFTC. This piece attacking two of the most prominent academic critics of Gensler's efforts to impose a speculative position limits rule comes out days after the Commission approved a new version of the rule, and is in the midst of the comment period leading up to the formulation of a final rule. Gensler fought for this rule for 5 years, and he views it as an important part of his legacy. That is, there is a clear political agenda at work here: to kneecap those who have the audacity to oppose the regulatory agenda of Gensler and his media acolytes.