On Tue, Aug 27, 2002 at 10:42:53AM -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:
> eric dorkin wrote:
>
> >If the Shrub started to make policy based on the
> >position of Saturn, then you might have to. For
> >crying out loud, we are still arguing over evolution.
>
> How much does Shrub justify policy on the basis of neoclassical econ?
> It's all about rewarding his friends - clearcut the national forests,
> break unions, cut wages, drill in ANWR, cut the taxes of
> centimillionaires, etc. Insofar as they use any theory to justify it,
> it's bastard supply-side-ism, with a few supply and demand curves
> thrown in for people who remember Econ 101. The Fed makes policy on
> the basis of instinct, anecdote, and their judgment of the balance of
> class forces.
>
> Neoclassical econ is more interesting as an ideology (as is
> astrology). It obviously has so little to do with the real world, the
> real question is what purposes its preposterous theories serve. If it
> were more relevant to policy than it is, then the chair of the CEA
> would be an important figure in the government instead of a largely
> useless figurehead. And so what if neoclassical economics has no
> explanation of profit. Bourgeois society has a couple - the reward
> for risk-taking and the source of investment funds.
>
> I suppose if I were an actual economist I wouldn't enjoy the luxury
> of dismissing the whole enterprise rudely. But I'm not, so I do.
>
> Doug
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu