Re: The Mind of Paul Krugman: Mahathir, Pinochet, bad men, good policies - and the 'job of economic analysts'

[paul phillips <phillipsp@xxxxxxx>]

I don't know how many on pen-l have read John Kenneth Galbraith's novel,
"A Tenured Professor" (Houghton Mifflin, 1990) which is a delightful,
humourous satirical view of American economists and academia and of the
establishmen'ts view of liberal economics and values -- written with
what appears to me to be a mildly Canadian, thought equally satiric
about Canadian values,  sensibility. His barbs are particularly directed
at American politicians, lobbyists, speculators and the financial
sector.  In order to get the full impact of the inside digs, it helps to
know the contemporary state of formal economics, but  any of you who are
concerned about the role of values in contemporary economics should get
a kick out of JKG's book. It is, however, somewhat pessimistic about the
ability of liberal academics to 'buck the system.'  Lou, I think you
would particularly enjoy the cynicism re  tenure and academic relevance.

Paul Phillips

Jurriaan Bendien wrote:

> Hmmph. A few thoughts about this. I don't think you can really accuse
> Krugman of proposing a value-free economics. I think he's basically
> interested in an economic system that is fair, just and delivers the
> goods in the real world and within the limits of what is feasible,
> i.e. it works. But that already involves values which specify what
> those things mean.