Eight Elementary Errors of Economics is discussed with Karl Fitzgerald of Melbourne community radio 3CR (855 am).
Karl does a program called Renegade Economists, part of the efforts of Earthsharing Australia. Good people, have a look and listen.
The interview can be heard here (Renegade Economists 18.07.2012). Have a listen, it came up pretty well.
[For some time I have been frustrated by the very limited perspective of mainstream political commentary in Australia, and by the difficulty of establishing a longer perspective in the standard 800-word commentary piece. So I decided just to write until the case was made. Hence this 6000-word essay. It refers to the Australian context, but there are parallel stories in other countries.]
The political spectrum is traditionally characterised in terms of Left and Right, but the way these terms are used has changed so much they have become quite misleading. Today they are more about tribal identification, and their use is more of an epithet than a description.
The main reason for these changes is that the Right has shifted to quite extreme positions, compared with a generation or two ago. The modern Right not only espouses free-market fundamentalism, it promotes an extreme individualism that overlooks or dismisses the importance of social relationships and even denies the existence of society. There seems to be no standard of factual basis, sense or consistency required for its claims, so any opinion, however uninformed or misinformed, apparently is to be accorded as much validity in the public domain as any other.
Whether economics can be a science, and whether mathematics has a place in economics or economic science, seem to be vexed questions among heterodox economists. Having been a natural scientist for over four decades and thought hard about the nature of science and the place of mathematical models within it, I would hope to offer some clarification on these issues. After discussion, this post will be put in a permanent page.
The long, and slightly modified, version of Eight Elementary Errors of Economics is now on SteveKeen’s Debtwatch. Reblogged on Business Spectator, 22 June and The Bull 23 June. I consolidated two of the previous points and added what is now the final point on emergent wealth of land. See also on Real World Economics Review Blog, 7 June, with long discussion.
Post edited 4 July: the full modified version now follows, so it’s all consolidated here.
The Global Financial Crisis, the extreme inequality of wealth world-wide, the materialism of modern life and the dire state of the planet are not accidents, nor just unavoidable consequences of the nature of things. They are the result of the modern practice of economics, which makes elementary errors of accounting, evidence, perception and theory.
More about ANU and its School of Music, this time published in the Canberra Times.
What is a university supposed to be? GEOFF DAVIES wonders if Ian Young knows
The determination of Australian National University vice-chancellor Ian Young to downgrade the School of Music leaves serious doubts that he understands what a university is. His stated reasons are still unconvincing, and leave the suspicion of an unstated agenda. The rest of ANU must be concerned.
Continuing the alliterative series on how to reform and save ourselves. The Eight Elementary Errors got a big response, so I might develop these into something more substantial.
There has been a lively discussion of Eight Elementary Errors of Economics at Real World Economics Review Blog. Here are a couple of exchanges that raise good points. (If these commenters respond further I will post them here, in fairness to them.) There has also been discussion of history, science, love and other topics. You might like to have a look.
When I was a young adult it dawned on me there is such a thing as collective insanity. I was reading about Japan near the end of World War II. The Japanese collectively refused to believe they could lose the war, and continued behaviour that was very destructive for themselves and others (they are not unique in this respect, they were just the example I happened to read about). It took the atomic bombs to shock them out of their state of psychological denial.
One view of insanity is the continuation of behaviour that is detrimental to one’s self, despite ample evidence of harm being done. How sane are we now, those of us who live in the rich countries?
[Wealth redistribution, welfare state, nanny state, class warfare: all the usual epithets flung about by the right wing apply most of all to … the filthy rich. A revealing post from The Conversation.]
By Philip Soos, Deakin University
A few weeks ago, a Deakin University academic, Martin Hirst, made some interesting comments about the politics and economics of class warfare and redistribution. He correctly noted that the accusations of class warfare by Coalition politicians and newspaper journalists against the ALP in relation to the recent budget are clearly overblown. The usual rhetoric of socialism, class warfare, envy, punishing success, neglecting wealth creation and so on were bandied about.
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