Michael Perelman wrote:
Sorry. Even a serious subject can be treated as minor squabbles about personalities.
I don't think it's just about personalities. For example:
There is much too much ideology," said Alan S. Blinder,... Economics, he added, is "often a triumph of theory over fact." Mr. Blinder helped kindle the discussion by publicly warning in speeches and articles this year that as many as 30 million to 40 million Americans could lose their jobs to lower-paid workers abroad. Just by raising doubts about the unmitigated benefits of free trade, he ... had colleagues rubbing their eyes in astonishment.
"What I've learned is anyone who says anything even obliquely that sounds hostile to free trade is treated as an apostate," Mr. Blinder said.<
and:
"You lose your ticket as a certified economist if you don't say any kind of price regulation is bad and free trade is good," said David Card ...<
and:
When Mr. Card's graduate students went on job interviews, he said
other economists would ask questions like "What's wrong with your adviser? Has he started drinking?"< and:
Criticizing the approach that currently dominates the field, Mr.
Blinder said economists must look more closely at the real world instead of modeling it in the lab. "Economics is insufficiently scientific," he said. "Mathematics may be useful, but mathematics is not scientific. It doesn't generate refutable hypotheses." < When well-known economists are quoted saying things like that in the NY TIMES, it makes the economics profession look bad. And that's a good thing. -- Jim Devine / "The tooth fairy teaches children that they can sell body parts for money." -- David Richerby
