University of Chicago economists have a reputation for being outspoken, libertarian, and conservative. My good friend and Chicago colleague Austan Goolsbee, who has been advising Barack Obama on economic policy since his Senate campaign, is only the first of these.
There is an article about economists advising presidential candidates that features Goolsbee in today’s New York Times. My guess is that this story exaggerates the influence of these economists on eventual policy outcomes. I may just be a skeptic when it comes to influence, though. I believe, for instance, that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve has a much smaller impact on the economy than most lay people believe.
Prior to Goolsbee’s new fame as an advisor to presidential candidates, I would have to rank his most impressive accomplishment as winning the M.I.T. economics department fantasy baseball championship two years in a row. What makes it so impressive is that I was his co-owner, and in 15 years of playing fantasy baseball without him as a co-owner, I have never even come close to winning.
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I just want to plug Professor Goolsbee as an amazing professor. I just took his class Econ and Policy in the Telecom, Media, and Technology Industries and it’s one of the 2 or 3 best classes I’ve ever taken at the University of Chicago. Having Goolsbee on board makes me even more of an Obama fan than I already was.
I just want to plug Professor Goolsbee as an amazing professor. I just took his class Econ and Policy in the Telecom, Media, and Technology Industries and it’s one of the 2 or 3 best classes I’ve ever taken at the University of Chicago. Having Goolsbee on board makes me even more of an Obama fan than I already was.
University of Chicago economists have a reputation for being outspoken, libertarian, and conservative.
There’s that funny word again. libertarian Used to be relatively rare. Now it often pops up almost as a descriptive adjective modifying the word conservative. To be an economist and to say you are conservative is no longer enough.
Can anyone explain this? Is it code words for saying that they are “conservative” on economic issues and “liberal” on social issues? Or is it an extra stress on being a “laissez faire capitalist”?
Or is it simply separating themselves from religious nuts who dominate the Republican party now days?
University of Chicago economists have a reputation for being outspoken, libertarian, and conservative.
There’s that funny word again. libertarian Used to be relatively rare. Now it often pops up almost as a descriptive adjective modifying the word conservative. To be an economist and to say you are conservative is no longer enough.
Can anyone explain this? Is it code words for saying that they are “conservative” on economic issues and “liberal” on social issues? Or is it an extra stress on being a “laissez faire capitalist”?
Or is it simply separating themselves from religious nuts who dominate the Republican party now days?
“Liberal” “conservative” “libertarian” are just social constructions that make political and sociological discourse venal and meaningless.
People do not fit into simple categories like “protein” “fat” and “carbohydrates”. I struggle to explain this viewpoint to my wife and parents regularly. I could list four beliefs I had on issues and people would have me fit into one of those silly categories before the fourth example left my lips. I could pick four more and be considered the opposite by someone else. When I list four and four it’s fun to watch their eyes glaze over and go all “tilt” . . . “that does not compute. . .”
We’d be more accurate to label people as “I need to control you” and “leave me alone”. Good luck.
“Liberal” “conservative” “libertarian” are just social constructions that make political and sociological discourse venal and meaningless.
People do not fit into simple categories like “protein” “fat” and “carbohydrates”. I struggle to explain this viewpoint to my wife and parents regularly. I could list four beliefs I had on issues and people would have me fit into one of those silly categories before the fourth example left my lips. I could pick four more and be considered the opposite by someone else. When I list four and four it’s fun to watch their eyes glaze over and go all “tilt” . . . “that does not compute. . .”
We’d be more accurate to label people as “I need to control you” and “leave me alone”. Good luck.
I think the Fed has greater negative potential (for screwing up the economy by excessive interference)than it has potential for helping the economy by doing benign things.
I think the Fed has greater negative potential (for screwing up the economy by excessive interference)than it has potential for helping the economy by doing benign things.