Look: I am eager to learn stuff I don't know--which requires actively courting and posting smart disagreement.

But as you will understand, I don't like to post things that mischaracterize and are aimed to mislead.

-- Brad Delong

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Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Quote of the Day - With a Sacrificial Goat!

Krugman:

I’ve been asked for reactions to Casey Mulligan’s piece about the failure of New Keynesian economics.The short answer is, he should try reading a bit of Keynesian economics — old or new, it doesn’t matter — before “explaining” what’s wrong with it. For the doctrine he’s attacking bears no resemblance to anything Keynesians are saying.

This is fairly typical of freshwater economists. They know that what the other side is saying is obviously stupid, so there’s need to read it; they picked up enough about it talking to some guy in a bar, or whatever, to criticize it.

PK goes on to demonstrate how Mulligan basically just MAKES SHIT UP and attributes his own idiotic mental construct  to Keynesians.  Same as it ever was.

Here's the conclusion:

If Mulligan wants to argue that point, fine — but he presents as “the New Keynesian position” something that is just what he imagines, on casual reflection (or, again, maybe after talking to some guy in a bar) to be the New Keynesian position.

OK, so from now on I’ll assert that the Chicago position on unemployment is that we can cure it by sacrificing goats. Hey, I heard that somewhere — no need to actually read anything they say, right?

.

4 comments:

The Arthurian said...

I guess I was mixed up. I thought it was the Austrians that want deflation. But the Mulligan article says it's the New Keynesians.

It's all stupid anyway. Who else would call their ideas "New" ???

Art

Steve Roth said...

> Mulligan ... attributes his own idiotic mental construct to Keynesians

Yes thank you. Succintly says what I perceived but hadn't clarified in my head.

Steve Bates said...

About 25 years ago I took a bathroom break from work. My almost-unbearably-stupid-and-arrogant boss stood at the adjacent urinal. Making obligatory conversation, I mentioned that on my own time I'd been studying object-oriented programming, which at the time was The Next Big Thing. The Boss promptly said, "You know what object-oriented programming is? All it is, is..." and proceeded to spew gallons of completely inapplicable crap metaphorically all over the floor of the men's room. No reply was possible, nor was it expected.

It sounds as if Krugman is acquainted with that type of personality, but applied to Keynesian economics instead of programming.

Jazzbumpa said...

Art -

I think Mish wants deflation, Austerians probably, too. Ideology over reality, once again.

Steve R -

Thanks, amigo.

Steve B -

Stupidity is where you find it, and it knows no limits.

Cheers!
JzB