Well at least that’s true of freshwater economists and their saltwater outliers (no names, just initials: Greg Mankiw).
Here’s how those economists think:
People are rational economic actors.
“Rational” means thinking like an economist.
Rational (read: freshwater) economists know that government spending is (deferred) taxation.
So when government spends, these rational people think and act as if they’re being taxed.
This thinking is so 1. circular and 2. ridiculously false on its face that it seems to need no rebuttal. But I will:
People also know (because they think rationally, like economists, and have perfect foresight) that future economic and population growth, productivity increases, and inflation will obviate (to some extent) the personal cost they’ll incur from those future taxes. (Assuming they even live long enough to pay them.)
But these economists don’t see that, because unlike people, they’re not rational: they don’t think like economists.
Comments
3 responses to “Economists Aren’t Rational”
I do believe you’ve come full circle!
Cheers!
JzB
Maybe Greg Mankiw, can get a seat on the FOMC spewing crap. There has to be some reward for losing your personal integrity, doesn’t there?? I guess since Dick Shelby decides these things now, and President Obama has conceded his his decision making role on the matter we’ll have to ask Dick. Sometimes I think, if the President isn’t willing to go to bat for a guy like Diamond, why should we go to bat for him??? I’m not asking President Obama to do the impossible and ramrod these people through. Only to get up on the stump (which he is good at when his own ass is on the line) and go to bat for people like Diamond and Elizabeth Warren 3 or 4 times strongly when the time comes.
The above description is called LEADERSHIP. And it goes beyond taking an airplane to the latest national crisis, and bringing up the decibel levels and dynamics of your voice. It means showing Americans a better direction, even when there’s a strong wind in your face. That means LEADERSHIP. That means going to bat for people like Diamond for FOMC and Elizabeth Warren for CFPB. Where is President Obama??? Holding court with his brown-skinned Marie Antoinette, in between her trips to Paris, while the U.S. employment lines are getting longer. He doesn’t get it.