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Christina
Romer, the University of California at Berkeley economics professor and
President Obama's first chief economist, once relayed the old joke that
"there are two kinds of students: those who hate economics and those
who really hate economics." She doesn't believe that, but it's true.
I'm surprised how many students tell me economics is their least
favorite subject. Why? Because too often economic theories defy common
sense. Alas, the policies of this administration haven't boosted the
profession's reputation.
Consider what happened last week when Laura Meckler of this newspaper
dared to ask White House Press Secretary Jay Carney how increasing
unemployment insurance "creates jobs." [Full]
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Duh. Everyone knows 'Bama has a stash.
ReplyDelete...
Which just happens to be replenished with Other Peoples' Money. They don't know, on the other hand, that you can run out of OPM.
We will all get rich doing each others' laundry, no?
The D party needs to get back to 3rd grade and learn the arithmetic they cribbed off Jimmy's test paper to pass the test...
tomw
tomw
ReplyDeleteBe clear. That was a generic Jimmy, NOT Jummy the son of a peanut farmer from Georgia.
A Mudgeon from Texas
As an engineer, I finally figured out why "macroeconomics" is such crap. The hard sciences deal with particles which always behave as they should. Economics deals with individuals who behave as they will. It is a human science, not a technical one. What is called "macro economics" deals with the result of gazillions of daily interactions of independent interpersonal decisions, the output of the black box. They try to model that black box, so they can make adjustments (twist knobs) to control the output more to their liking. Trouble is, not only is the "circuitry" inside that box more complex than they can possibly imagine, it is self-healing, adaptive, intelligent, stupid, and creative. They'd rather try to re-wire the box and remove all that independent capability (by state capitalism, tyranny, whatever) rather than admit that the whole concept of a state-controllable economy is fundamentally wrong.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry. We've got plenty of rope and trees.
ReplyDeleteA Mudgeon from Texas:
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely correct, sorry for my lack of clarity.
DougM:
I think you are describing "The Blob", as depicted in a movie made when I was about 10. A huge blob of stuff that moved indiscriminately, consumed or absorbed everything it touched, left destruction in its wake, and generally was unlikeable and unpredictable.
Oh, wait. I'm describing Congrefs. Never mind.
tomw