Monday, January 19, 2009

On the state of economics

This is a comment I submitted in response to Paul Krugman's blog entry on academic economists forgetting their economics for political purposes. I doubt it will pass the NYT's moderation--most of my more radical comments do not--so I am reposting it here. [Minor corrections and clarifications on 21 Jan.]
Prof. Krugman, this is the end of a process; the process of corrupting the academic community of economists. Just as much effort was spent on corrupting the political process, which culminated in the disaster of the Bush II administration, much effort was spent on persuading academic economists that white was black, so that they could support the looting of the wealth of the US middle class and the establishment of a social order with a vast disparity of wealth between rich and poor. This has culminated in our arrival at the brink of a second Great Depression.

Corruption breeds in the night, in the shadows. And then comes the day, and we stand around in the light, astonished at what is revealed. What is economics, really, if so many leading economists were not scientists but political propagandists? How much of the literature has been twisted out of shape to conform with their politics? The peer review process is no defense against the publication of propaganda as research when the reviewers themselves are propagandists. It is going to be at least a generation before the discipline recovers its balance.

It is not only our government that needs truth and reconciliation, I fear. Krawk!

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