Calumny. I've been told my tones are quite mellifluous.
On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 10:05 AM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > http://www.thenation.com/article/hip-heterodoxy > Hip Heterodoxy > Christopher Hayes | May 24, 2007 > > It's a Friday night in January, and I am searching for a free > drink among 9,000 economists. Every year a sizable portion of the > nation's economists descend on some lucky city for the Allied > Social Science Associations Annual Meeting, the economics field's > largest gathering, a kind of carnival of suits and supply curves. > Most academic disciplines have a similar annual convention, but no > other can boast the same influence on American politics and > policy--after all, Presidents don't appoint a council of > anthropological advisers. It doesn't take long for mainstream > academic thinking to become the foundation for the government's > macroeconomic policy. In 1968 Milton Friedman, then president of > the American Economics Association (AEA), devoted his presidential > address to arguing against Keynesian meddling in the economy and > for a monetary policy focused on restraining inflation. A decade > later, his prescriptions would be largely adopted. In 2005 onetime > Reagan adviser Martin Feldstein called for Social Security > privatization just as Republicans in Washington were mobilizing > (unsuccessfully) toward the same end. > > This year's conference attendees are packed into the mammoth > glass-and-brick Chicago Hyatt. On the second evening, I come > across two receptions facing off across a basement hallway. If you > wanted to get a sense of the status hierarchies of the profession, > this was a perfect tableau. On one side, a reception in honor of > the impending rebroadcast of the late Milton Friedman's famed > miniseries Free to Choose, a wildly successful bit of > laissez-faire propaganda now set to reach a new generation of > unsuspecting blue-state audiences. The room is packed and festive, > with several Nobel laureates milling about, chicken satay skewers > available for noshing and an open bar. (A man behind me in line > complains of the free drinks that "Milton wouldn't approve! > Because we're not getting the true price of the drinks.") Across > the hall, a reception hosted by the Economic Policy Institute > (EPI), a left-liberal Washington think tank that advocates > policies--higher minimum wage, easier paths to unionization, > social insurance--that are in almost every detail the opposite of > everything that Friedman stood for. In that room, perhaps thirty > people gather, picking at the cheese cubes and shelling out $6 a > drink at the cash bar. The EPI's Max Sawicky, an imposing presence > with a long gray ponytail and growling voice, tells me the turnout > is better than usual. > > After grabbing a free drink in the Friedman reception, I strike up > a conversation with economist Michael Perelman in the hallway. > Balding, with long gray hair, he has the intense, unblinking mien > of a self-published science fiction writer, or a former grad > student of Timothy Leary's. Perelman, who is there for the EPI > reception, works at the margins of the discipline; he is one of a > few hundred self-described "heterodox" economists at the > conference. His last book, Railroading Economics, was about the > creation of the "free market mythology," and his next book is > titled The Confiscation of American Prosperity: From Right-Wing > Extremism and Economic Ideology to the Next Great Depression. I > ask him about how he relates to the so-called mainstream of his > profession. "It's a mafia," he says quietly, his eyes roving over > to the suits spilling out of the Freedom to Choose room. > > (clip) > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >
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