A campaign that's all about faking it
Professional Malpractice by GOP Economists
Thursday, 23 August 2012 09:27
Thursday, 23 August 2012 09:27
By Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co. | Op-Ed
A big story among the dismal science set has been the Romney campaign's white paper on economic policy, which represents a concerted effort by three economists — Glenn Hubbard, Greg Mankiw and John Taylor — to destroy their own reputations. (Yes, there was a fourth author, Kevin Hassett. But the co-author of "Dow 36,000" doesn't exactly have a reputation to destroy.)
And when I talk about destroying reputations, I don't just mean that these three say things I disagree with. I mean flat-out, undeniable, professional malpractice.
It's one thing for them to make shaky or even demonstrably wrong arguments. It's something else when they cite the work of other economists, claiming that it supports their position, when it does no such thing. And don't take my word for it — listen to the protests of the cited economists.
By the way, this isn't obscure stuff. To take one example from their paper: the work of Atif Mian and Amir Sufi on household debt and the slump has been playing a big role in making the case for a demand-driven depression, which is exactly the kind of situation in which stimulus makes sense — so you have to be completely out of it and/or unscrupulous to cite some of their work and claim that it refutes the case for stimulus. Or to take another example, anyone following the debate knows that a paper written by Scott Baker, Nicholas Bloom and Stephen Davis claiming to show that uncertainty is holding back recovery clearly identifies the relevant uncertainty as arising from things like the Republican Party's brinksmanship over the debt ceiling — not things like Obamacare.
(More here.)
A big story among the dismal science set has been the Romney campaign's white paper on economic policy, which represents a concerted effort by three economists — Glenn Hubbard, Greg Mankiw and John Taylor — to destroy their own reputations. (Yes, there was a fourth author, Kevin Hassett. But the co-author of "Dow 36,000" doesn't exactly have a reputation to destroy.)
And when I talk about destroying reputations, I don't just mean that these three say things I disagree with. I mean flat-out, undeniable, professional malpractice.
It's one thing for them to make shaky or even demonstrably wrong arguments. It's something else when they cite the work of other economists, claiming that it supports their position, when it does no such thing. And don't take my word for it — listen to the protests of the cited economists.
By the way, this isn't obscure stuff. To take one example from their paper: the work of Atif Mian and Amir Sufi on household debt and the slump has been playing a big role in making the case for a demand-driven depression, which is exactly the kind of situation in which stimulus makes sense — so you have to be completely out of it and/or unscrupulous to cite some of their work and claim that it refutes the case for stimulus. Or to take another example, anyone following the debate knows that a paper written by Scott Baker, Nicholas Bloom and Stephen Davis claiming to show that uncertainty is holding back recovery clearly identifies the relevant uncertainty as arising from things like the Republican Party's brinksmanship over the debt ceiling — not things like Obamacare.
(More here.)
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