I’m not defending Krugman, but in my own defense, no one would have predicted flat screens computers and 4lbs laptops would be available to the general public much less for so cheap. If prices remained steady from 1998, were talking about a computer that costs roughly 2k and there is no online banking. Municipal taxes and courts are also mostly not online as well, but they tend to have fax numbers. Day to day budgeting and bill paying was not online except for larger businesses who also set up meetings and emailed spreadsheets to handle expenses