[lbo-talk] origins of the housing boom

[Carrol Cox]

On 8/30/2011 1:46 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> On Aug 30, 2011, at 11:48 AM, Jordan Hayes wrote:
>
>>> I would summarize my entire argument this way. Suppose you
>>> or I traveled back in time to 2005 and got a job writing for
>>> the WSJ. We pitch our editor on a story that says (a) housing
>>> is hugely overvalued and (b) the major banks will all go bankrupt
>>> when house prices collapse.
>>
>> Plenty of people sounded this warning.  Many were rejected or fired. Ask Robert Shiller about it.
>
> That seems to be the case with a lot of bubbles. There are always some prophets of doom. But since there are not profits of doom, no one wants to listen to them.
>
> Doug

I deny having any knowledge whatever of economics and hence have no dog 
in this race. But  considering the length of the thread and the 
inability of a number of trained economists to come to a shared 
agreement, it does seem to offer evidence for considering what is 
called "economics" to be anything else than a "science." Albritton calls 
writing on current economics _history_ (in contrast to mid-level theory 
and theory).

And Postone's claim that Marx's Critique of Political Economy did not 
constitute a Critical Political Economy seems justified as well.

Carrol