Friday Links and Roundup

New feature for the Friday links- a quick roundup of the week’s posts, for those of you who aren’t subscribed (I’m stealing this gambit from Ezra Klein at WaPo). It was a busy week; we talked about: obesity as a function of society; Sen’s new manifesto; taking on Paul Krugman on epistemic closure; reposting Ruccio’s [...]

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Why Environmentalists Don’t Trust Economists

I’ve written a lot here about climate change and environmental economics, trying to point out weaknesses and blind spots in the cap and trade approach. Before I digress, then, let me say that I think getting ACES passed through the Senate would be a step in the right direction. Just like health care reform, I’m [...]

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Doubling Down: Parsing the Comments re: Max U

I’ve found a number of the comments on my post about utility maximization to be helpful and clarifying, and I’m convinced as ever that we need to throw it out. I’m mainly focusing here on posts that either confirm or deny my assertion that it should be thrown out, and leaving out the certainly relevant [...]

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Redefining Fiscal Sustainability

Update: As I hit post, I realized that billyblog has links to video, running transcripts, et al. from the conference. Soak it up. I got to attend the first discussion session at the Fiscal Sustainability Counter-Conference today, which was led by Bill Mitchell, who blogs at billyblog. If you read the comment threads here, then [...]

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In which I “attack old-fashioned economics,” i.e. utility maximization

Update: I try to synthesize the comments from this post here. Warning: this post is long, but hopefully thoughtful and at least somewhat original. Also, if you’re new to the blog, subscribe in the upper right hand corner via RSS. Check out my recent posts on epistemic closure and fiscal sustainability. At an off-campus discussion [...]

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Bet Against the American Dream

Just in case anyone missed Bet Against the American Dream, I thought it could offer some levity amidst Goldman’ s Senate hearings today. [ht:cr]

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Notre Dame Forum: Global Marketplace and the Common Good

A graduating senior sends along this press release, indicating that Notre Dame’s academic forum this year will discuss, “the role of ethics, values and morals in the rebuilding and reshaping of the global economy.” Previous topics have been immigration, climate change, and third-world development. As the press release notes, in play is Pope Benedict XVI’s [...]

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“The poverty of Smith”

For the benefit of those who have not yet begun to follow his blog, here’s David Ruccio taking my bait on Sen’s recasting of Smith. I have just a small comment below. Mainstream economists cite Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations as the founding text of modern economics. But, as I’ve mentioned before, while they often cite the Wealth [...]

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Epistemic Closure for Krugman/Mainstream Economics

This one is almost too easy. Krugman charges freshwater macroeconomists with epistemic closure. He writes, Ask a grad student at Princeton or MIT, “How would a new classical macro guy answer this?”, and the student can do it; classes at freshwater departments teach real business cycle theory, and good students can tell you what it [...]

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Sen’s Manifesto, Class, and Theories of Value

Mark Thoma links to Amartya Sen’s “The economist manifesto” in the New Statesman. The key point: The spirited attempt to see Smith as an advocate of pure capitalism, with complete reliance on the market mechanism guided by pure profit motive, is altogether misconceived. Smith never used the term “capitalism” (I have certainly not found an instance). [...]

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