[lbo-talk] vote on econ nobelist

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Wed Sep 24 16:19:32 PDT 2003


Mongiovi Gary wrote:


>Jensen too
>is a distinguished scholar who has made a few seminal contributions

Michael Jensen, theorist of the LBO? He was onto several things - the free cash flow problem was something that Monthly Review's been writing about for decades, and the agency problem is no small matter - but his prescriptions were disastrous. And he's a political ghoul. I love his 1989 list of "obstacles to economic progress": "striking Eastern Air Lines pilots, Pittston Coal miners, [and] New York Telephone employees, who seem perfectly content to destroy or damage their employer's organization while attempting to serve their own interests. Ralph Nader's consumer activist organization is another example." On second thought, maybe that makes him eminently qualified for the Nobel!

Doug



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