Re: Wanniski

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

David wrote:
> I have no personal interest in defending Wanniski, but I don't see
> presumably sophisticated business people paying you, or anybody else on
> this list, good money to predict and analyze the economy and the effects
> of politics on the economy.

No-one pays me to predict the economy's future path, but then again no-one
can predict it. Those forecasting professionals simply extrapolate current
trends, and end up following the same type of herd-like pattern that the
stock-market speculators and many real-world markets follow.

I am paid to analyze the economy. That's part of being a professional
economist.

> Let's remember that Wanniski is a popularizer of Mundell, who I presume
> you do respect.

Krugman has some useful things to say about Mundell, who went from being a
mainstream economist to the fringe.

> Are you taking the position that if somebody asserts and defends a
> position that is outside of the mainstream of conventional economics, that
> person "doesn't know much about economics."

No. I'm saying that someone whose economic arguments make no sense is one
who doesn't know much about economics.

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine