Re: In defence of Krugman and against Alexander Cockburn: choice oftargets

[paul phillips <phillipsp@xxxxxxx>]

Yea , I smoked a pipe for many yeares and enjoyed it -- until I became a
victim of  ashma and quit smoking.  Now I find  smoke of any sort a
terrible hazard.  More so for my wife for whom smoke of any sort
triggers heart  fibrilations that are potentially fatal.  I think the
tobacco companies deserve legal defence just as homocial murderers.  No
more, no less.

But on the more important question of Krugman versus Stiglitz.  To me
there is no contest.  Though I appreciate and forward Krugman's odd
commentary, I tend to agree with his criticism is just neoclassic
orthodoxy in critique of neoliberal ideology.  It is just nice to see
the mainstream agree will the  few of us that  critique the economic
world from the real left.

On the other hand, I think Stiglitz is a different  'kettle of fish'.
First, as others have observed, he is not in the same game of personal
aggrandizement.  Second, along with  his fellow nobel award winner
(Akerlof) his economics is not  orthodox and accepts both institutional
frameworks and  non-neoclassical  frameworks -- e.g. assymetrical
information, etc. -- .  The beauty of  Stiglitz's critique is that it
allowed us to deveolop a non-orthodox analysis that we could present,
not only to our students, but also to the general public.  Without
ideological baggage.

In Solidarity,

Paul Phillips.

Louis Proyect wrote:

> > Carl, I smoked a pipe for several decades before quitting -- and I would
> > be afraid to add up how many thousands of dollars (not covered by
> > insurance) I have spent on repairing (partly) the damage it did to my
> > teeth. Right now, I've got a large gap in the front of my mouth (upper)
> > which has cost me so far %3000 (for the implants) and will cost another
> > thousand or two for the crowns on the implants. And it will cost me
> > about $5000 to get the teeth below filled in. Trying to add it up in my
> > head right now, I must have clsoe to $20,000 dental work in my mouth,
> > counting only repair of the damage done by holding a pipe between my
> > teeth.
> >
> > Carrol
>
>
> Mark Jones was a pipe smoker.
>
>
> Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org