[PEN-L:29552] Re: Re: economists

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Eugene Coyle
To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2002 2:35 PM
Subject: [PEN-L:29544] Re: economists


Jim, I certainly agree with your last sentence.  The function of the
neo-classical micro, and the Chicago sub-set, is exactly to serve
the purpose of the business types.  They need that story to train
the press, politicians, opinion leaders.  The economists' job is to
tell the story.

Here are a paragraph from Wendell Berry and a paragraph from me from
a forthcoming publication:

This idea of a global "free market" economy, despite its obvious
moral flaws and its dangerous practical weaknesses,
is now the ruling orthodoxy of the age. Its propaganda is subscribed
to and distributed by most political leaders,
 editorial writers, and other "opinion makers.  . Wendell Berry

Economists produce the propaganda Wendell Berry decries.  Like "The
Shadow" in the old radio drama,
economists have the power to cloud mens' minds.  Prestigious
universities, more powerful than radioactive spiders,
harbor a corrupted discipline in the service of greed.

Gene

==================================

I posted this "back on" 6-20-02 which might be of some relevance on
the propaganda issue front:


"Does economics make citizens corrupt"
Bjorn Frank & Gunther Schulze
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
Vol. 43 (2000) p 101-113

Abstract:

In this paper, we report on an experiment on corruption which
investigates various determinants of corruptibility. We found that
economics students are significantly more corrupt than others, which
is
due to self-selection rather than indoctrination. Moreover, our
results
vary with gender - male students of economics are most corrupt, male
non-economists the least. Also agents are no less corrupt if
rewarded in
addition to, and independently of a possible bribe. Our experiment
isolates the influence of self-interest on cooperation from other
influences such as risk attitude and expectations regarding the
behavior
of others.


At least some economists are teaching about the issue:

http://www.econ.barnard.columbia.edu/~polisci/courses/3500xl02.pdf