The "Real World Economics Review Blog" is accepting submissions (limited to three per poster; opened on 12 January) for what they're calling the Ignoble Prize in Economics, with an aim towards awarding it to those most culpable for the current GFC, which I take to mean Global Financial Catastrophe. Currently, apart from my lackluster contribution, there appears to me to be no Austrian input on the form that this thing is taking. It's really a trifle, really, but it did move me to wonder what direction an influx of Austrians might lead it in.
A critic did nominate Walras, of all people, and bemoaned that they couldn't nominate Menger and Jevons as well. That was amusing.
http://rwer.wordpress.com/nominations-for-the-ignoble-prize-for-economics/
http://rwer.wordpress.com/poll-procedures-for-the-ignoble-prize-for-economics/
Keynes; no contest
Where there is no property there is no justice; a proposition as certain as any demonstration in Euclid
Fools! not to see that what they madly desire would be a calamity to them as no hands but their own could bring
nirgrahamUK: Keynes; no contest
I would agree, but their rules are only for economists active in the last quarter century. In that case, Alan Greenspan.
Robert Brager: A critic did nominate Walras, of all people, and bemoaned that they couldn't nominate Menger and Jevons as well. That was amusing.
An anti-marginalist? Interesting.
That Keynes is the culprit most readily identifiable is not in doubt.
Get a load of their GENERAL RULES:
Keynes is out and what are we to make of the public works programs and expanded regulatory apparatus of the state favored by Dean Baker? Accurately predicting the bursting of an asset bubble is cool and all, but that doesn't necessarily make Baker a great economist.
Fed policy has been more monetarist / price-stabilizationist than Keynesian. So I'd actually nominate Irving Fisher and Milton Friedman over Keynes for this particular mess.
I think honourable mention should go to the Krugman for sticking with that broken window fallacy, and as someone we could have trusted to have messed things up even worse than Span did
Krugman and Keynes should win the Lifetime Fail Award for Econ.
Difficult to pin down. As has been pointed out, Keynesian theory is not the only big influence on fiscal policy, and it shoud be noted that there are many modern Keynesians who differ and disagree greatly with their progenitor. As for Bernanke, well, he's like the driver of a car that's going over the cliff. It doesn't matter if he's a saint or the Devil himself, you are still going to get smashed to bits when the car goes over.
This is off topic, but this reminds me of my idea to nominate the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for a Lifetime Achievement in the Ignobel Prize for Science.
J. Grayson Lilburne: nirgrahamUK: Keynes; no contest So I'd actually nominate Irving Fisher and Milton Friedman over Keynes for this particular mess.
So I'd actually nominate Irving Fisher and Milton Friedman over Keynes for this particular mess.
I think awarding the prize to Friedman would unfortunately be perceived as a triumph of the "see deregulation, greed and free markets caused this!" crowd. I wouldn't even put it past someone voting for Hayek for the same mistaken reasons.
Maybe I'm being too pessimistic...
"When the King is far the people are happy." Chinese proverb
For Alexander Zinoviev and the free market there is a shared delight:
"Where there are problems there is life."
abskebabs: I think awarding the prize to Friedman would unfortunately be perceived as a triumph of the "see deregulation, greed and free markets caused this!" crowd. I wouldn't even put it past someone voting for Hayek for the same mistaken reasons.
Ha, ha! What I noticed is that free markets are always blamed for every social/economic/political ill while science and technology are always the reason for social progress as in, "Free markets didn't cause the population to double, that was caused by the reaper and the process of crop rotation." Or something like it. Seriously we can't win against this kind of hair-splitting!
J. Grayson Lilburne:Fed policy has been more monetarist / price-stabilizationist than Keynesian. So I'd actually nominate Irving Fisher and Milton Friedman over Keynes for this particular mess.
I don't see how you reach this conclusion. The FED has been working with the Philips curve and they target short term interest rates, as opposed to the money supply. Fisher was bad on monetary theory but his work on capital was quite impressive (not technically Austrian in the Misesian sense, but still good).
"If we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion."
I think it has to be Thomas Friedman, Paul Krugman, or the guy that made that ridiculous freakanomics book. Maybe flat tax people. And the fair tax people. Libertarian paternalists. Bernanke. Greenspan. Jim Mad Money Kramer.
Not necessarily for current mess -- economists didn't cause it -- but in general.
Robert Brager: The "Real World Economics Review Blog" is accepting submissions (limited to three per poster; opened on 12 January) for what they're calling the Ignoble Prize in Economics, with an aim towards awarding it to those most culpable for the current GFC, which I take to mean Global Financial Catastrophe.
The "Real World Economics Review Blog" is accepting submissions (limited to three per poster; opened on 12 January) for what they're calling the Ignoble Prize in Economics, with an aim towards awarding it to those most culpable for the current GFC, which I take to mean Global Financial Catastrophe.
All of them.
Thomas Friedman. He did more damage than most of us can imagine.
Kakugo: Thomas Friedman. He did more damage than most of us can imagine.
Why?
JosephBright: nirgrahamUK: Keynes; no contest I would agree, but their rules are only for economists active in the last quarter century. In that case, Alan Greenspan.
I'm pretty sure that if you vote Krugman, everyone will know you meant to vote Keynes.
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