
Economics has failed us. Miserably - huihuiilly
http://bostonreview.net/class-inequality/jonathan-kirshner-whistling-past-graveyard
======
Agustus
No, politicians abusing economists have failed the system. In each case a
politician wants to accomplish x, they find an economist wanting to sell their
soul by saying: x might be possible if y and z are held constant; but y and z
are impossible to hold constant. Look no further than any administrations
options:

1\. Minimum wage, all economic 101 will tell you it does not work, yet, there
is Krugman (who published a textbook stating it does not work) saying minimum
wage can be raised with only a slight impact on the market.

2\. Trade tariffs: they hurt downstream utilization, the aluminum prices
increase has impacted the vehicle manufacturers in the US. Yet here we have
the current administration saying: oh, it will work.

3\. Rent control: it does nothing but gut the markets of rentable space,
drives the landlords out of the market, and reduces available affordable
housing. Yet, here is Oregon finding economists who say: maybe... it might
work.

4\. Cash for clunkers: it was a pull forward of purchases, any economist would
shave told us that. In the end it just sucker punched the poor for seven years
as all these used vehicles were removed from the market. Larry Summers selling
this boondoggle never made sense.

What this shows is that the term economist is open ended with enough non
science items being bantered about that cause these disasters in economics.
Then when you call them out on their recommendations, they say it was not
implemented with y and z implemented.

~~~
bgorman
Paul Krugman and Barack Obama receiving Nobel prizes was the wake up call I
needed to realize how many "honors" are actually the establishment rubber
stamping their avatars.

~~~
flatfilefan
I was also wondering how a Nobel prize and Krugman fit in one sentence every
time I read his column in NYT. Now recently even the Swedish Academy had
revealed corruption and petty politics between its members. Just have to learn
to ruthlessly ignore any authorities, I guess.

~~~
lokedhs
To be fair, the Swedish Academy is only responsible for the literature prize.
While the Academy has done some fantastic things (for example, Svenska
Akademiens Ordbok) they have been a social club for the intellectual elite for
a long time.

The economy prize (which isn't even a real Nobel prize) is given by the
Swedish National Bank.

