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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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 Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 6:39 pm Post subject: An Economist attacks Lawyers (as IMF Heads) |
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Its time for the lawyers
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Another grim week for the dismal science began with the International Monetary Fund�s executive board blocking Stanley Fischer, governor of the Bank of Israel, from applying to become its managing director. Mr Fischer is a legend within the economics profession but his pleas to appoint an economist to the job failed. He was two years over the age limit and that was that
Instead, a lawyer � Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister � is clear favourite. Agustin Carstens, the only other candidate, seems to have spent more time defending the fact that his economics PhD was awarded by the University of Chicago � a known incubator of the neoliberal virus � than has Ms Lagarde for not having one at all.
As well as Ms Lagarde, the current German and Italian finance ministers are lawyers; Nicolas Sarkozy is the first practising lawyer to ascend to the French presidency in modern times. China, traditionally run by engineers, is about to appoint its first premier with a law degree. As one Twitter wit noted, if the public finances of so many countries are in such disarray it�s probably because half of their ministers are billing by the hour.
Maybe here is what�s going on: economists have always enjoyed being regarded as sages imparting scientific wisdom to untutored civilians but their claim to be dispassionate dispensers of settled knowledge was always undermined by half the profession despising the other half almost as much as they despised non-economists. And though the global financial crisis suggested much of the economists� advice was wrong, they disagree ever more virulently about which part. |
The only thing worse than a lawyer is an economist. Better let an engineer run the IMF. Better to let someone who builds and creates lead rather than an obfuscator or a destroyer of worlds.
I don't mean to say all economists are destroyers of worlds, but those hailing from the University of Chicago probably are. |
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jaykimf
Joined: 24 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 9:19 am Post subject: Re: An Economist attacks Lawyers (as IMF Heads) |
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| Kuros wrote: |
The only thing worse than a lawyer is an economist. Better let an engineer run the IMF. Better to let someone who builds and creates lead rather than an obfuscator or a destroyer of worlds.
I don't mean to say all economists are destroyers of worlds, but those hailing from the University of Chicago probably are. |
BS |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 9:55 am Post subject: Re: An Economist attacks Lawyers (as IMF Heads) |
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| jaykimf wrote: |
| Kuros wrote: |
The only thing worse than a lawyer is an economist. Better let an engineer run the IMF. Better to let someone who builds and creates lead rather than an obfuscator or a destroyer of worlds.
I don't mean to say all economists are destroyers of worlds, but those hailing from the University of Chicago probably are. |
BS |
Do you think an economist should be preferred as a head of the IMF? |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 2:13 pm Post subject: Re: An Economist attacks Lawyers (as IMF Heads) |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| I don't mean to say all economists are destroyers of worlds, but those hailing from the University of Chicago probably are. |
This argument is rather outdated. Economics have come a long way since the 1970s. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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| I think I'd rather just not have an IMF to be honest. Just like the Federal Reserve, all indications that I can see imply that it's a massive failure at its stated missions. I'm also not a fan of how they do business. This idea that all our economic woes can be solved through brutal austerity measures, corporate tax cuts, and selling off public assets is silly. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 4:46 pm Post subject: Re: An Economist attacks Lawyers (as IMF Heads) |
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| northway wrote: |
| Kuros wrote: |
| I don't mean to say all economists are destroyers of worlds, but those hailing from the University of Chicago probably are. |
This argument is rather outdated. Economics have come a long way since the 1970s. |
Yes, I was being pretty broad in my criticism. Nevertheless, the "rational market" theory, largely coming out of Chicago and embraced by Greenspan, has been totally repudiated. |
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Friend Lee Ghost
Joined: 06 Jun 2011
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| Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 5:53 am Post subject: |
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| Fox wrote: |
| This idea that all our economic woes can be solved through brutal austerity measures, corporate tax cuts, and selling off public assets is silly. |
It is much worse than silly. It is practically genocidal. Listen to economic historian Webster Tarpley interviewed on Guns and Butter on June 17th at 9am. |
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