Stacking the old deck

Yeah, but whose economists?

“ IN the months to come, John McCain and Barack Obama will be vying for the support of various voting blocs. It is safe to say, however, that one group won’t get much attention: economists. The American Economic Association represents only a small fraction of 1 percent of the electorate. In every election season, we economists expect to be largely ignored, and, unlike many of our other forecasts, that one often turns out to be right. But suppose it were otherwise. Imagine that those running for office tailored their economic positions to attract the experts in the field. What would it take to put the nation’s economists solidly behind a candidate? On many issues, from universal health insurance to increased taxes on the rich, economists do not speak with a single voice. But on some issues we do. Here is an eight-plank platform designed to attract a majority of economists. It is based on discussions I have had with my colleagues — call them focus groups, if you’d like — and polls of my profession: ” Not surprisingly for a newspaper that's suffocatingly left-partisan, this New York Times Economic View, while not ridgidly Marxist,  holds few surprises as it grades the candidate's positions on these  (some quite curious) issues.  "Tax use on energy" achieves critcal mess. But hey, what would you expect from a group that honored Paul Krugman as the nation's top economist under the age of 40? SUPPORT FREE TRADE OPPOSE FARM SUBSIDIES LEAVE OIL COMPANIES AND SPECULATORS ALONE TAX THE USE OF ENERGY RAISE THE RETIREMENT AGE INVITE MORE SKILLED IMMIGRANTS RAISE FUNDS FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH Jodi