Travis
----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com> To: "lbo-talk" <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2005 10:39 AM Subject: [lbo-talk] speaking of the state of economics
> Chronicle of Higher Education - web daily - April 7, 2005
>
> Harvard Economist Is Accused of Trying to Steal Farm's Gross Domestic
> Product
> By PIPER FOGG
>
> Martin L. Weitzman has a Ph.D. in economics, tenure at Harvard University,
> and an endowed chair, but what he really wanted was a truckload of free
> manure.
>
> A police officer in Rockport, Mass., said on Wednesday that Mr. Weitzman
> was arrested and charged with trespassing, larceny under $250, and
> malicious destruction of property for attempting to steal manure last
> Friday from a horse farm in Rockport, 30 miles northeast of Boston.
>
> According to the Associated Press, Phillip Casey, the stable manager at
> the farm of Charles Lane, found the economist on the property on Friday
> and blocked the professor's pickup truck before telephoning the police.
>
> An Invisible Hand?
>
> Mr. Casey told the news service that Mr. Weitzman, who lives in
> Gloucester, had been stealing manure from the farm for years. He said the
> professor got angry and offered to pay $20 and then $40 for the manure he
> had already taken, but Mr. Casey refused to take the money because he
> wanted the thefts to stop.
>
> The Lane farm, which is marked as private property, uses the manure to
> fertilize a pasture and also sells it for $35 a truckload.
>
> The police officer said that he had received numerous calls about the
> case, and that while some people may think this is "silly," it's actually
> quite a serious matter.
>
> Mr. Weitzman did not respond to telephone messages left at his faculty
> office at Harvard. Neither Mr. Lane nor Mr. Casey could be reached for
> comment.
>
> It is unclear whether Mr. Weitzman had a practical or academic use in mind
> for the manure. His main research interest is environmental and
> natural-resource economics.
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