Re: [Pen-l] Ivory Tower Unswayed by Crashing Economy

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

> NY Times, March 5, 2009
> Ivory Tower Unswayed by Crashing Economy
> By PATRICIA COHEN

> ... When asked why graduate students don’t study Keynes or Minksy, Mr. Reny replied that graduate students work on subjects — like real models of business cycles — that are at the frontier of the field; by contrast Keynes and Minsky are not on the frontier anymore....<

In this Chicago-school approach, the "frontier" seems to be nothing
but the use of more complicated and difficult-to-understand
mathematics. It has nothing to do with studying reality, except to
promote the idea that reality should be forced into a free-market
strait jacket.

> A real shift among economists will come only if there is a wholesale collapse, Mr. Wray and Mr. Card agreed. If unemployment is still high three years from now, then you might start to see a paradigm shift, Mr. Card said; economists will “have to say that the market isn’t supposed to work this way.” But if the economy bounces back in a year, then they will be able to dismiss the financial crash as an anomaly that is unimportant to the larger theory, he added.<

More likely, the real shift among economists will happen when some
big-name economists find themselves unemployed or suffering from
significant pay-cuts. Roger Kimball should militate against "tenured
radical conservatives," while Dinesh D'Souza should put a new meaning
on the first word of "Illiberal Education."
-- 
Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own
way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l