January 24, 2003
Long article in The Chronicle of Higher Education about What's Wrong With Economics. Three observations. One: the squabbling in the economics department of Notre Dame is so bad the department will probably have to be split into two. Wow. Two: the article irritatingly and misleadingly conflates the thoughtful criticisms of Deirdre McCloskey and Ed Leamer--who have also proposed viable, constructive ways to address the criticisms they raise--with spacey critics who advocate Austrian, Afrocentric, Marxian, and feminist approaches to economics that won't fix anything. Three: to the gentleman who claims economics isn't "predictive" and has the same maturity as "physics before Newton and possibly before Galileo," what social science do you have that's better? And maybe you should reconsider your career choice; I bet sociology could use a guy like you. (Or as the classic wisecrack has it: if you move to sociology, you'll raise the IQ of both disciplines.)
UPDATE: Link is now fixed. Thanks, Julia!