{"id":1086,"date":"2009-02-18T05:37:45","date_gmt":"2009-02-18T10:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/?p=1086"},"modified":"2009-02-18T05:37:45","modified_gmt":"2009-02-18T10:37:45","slug":"repost-needs-to-be-broadcast-why-arent-you-ashamed-of-yourselves-grasping-reality-with-both-hands-gregory-clark-is-chairman-of-the-department-of-economics-at-the-university-of-california-at-da","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/2009\/02\/18\/repost-needs-to-be-broadcast-why-arent-you-ashamed-of-yourselves-grasping-reality-with-both-hands-gregory-clark-is-chairman-of-the-department-of-economics-at-the-university-of-california-at-da\/","title":{"rendered":"rePost : Needs to be Broadcast, Why Aren&#039;t You Ashamed Of Yourselves!: Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Gregory Clark Is Chairman of the Department of Economics at the University of California at Davis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Image:UniversityofCalifornia%2CDavis.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"University of California, Davis\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/thumb\/7\/7b\/UniversityofCalifornia%2CDavis.JPG\/202px-UniversityofCalifornia%2CDavis.JPG\" alt=\"University of California, Davis\" width=\"202\" height=\"194\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<dd class=\"wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution\" style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\">Image via <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Image:UniversityofCalifornia%2CDavis.JPG\">Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Gregory Clark Is Chairman of the Department of Economics at the <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"University of California, Davis\" rel=\"geolocation\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=38.54,-121.75&amp;spn=1.0,1.0&amp;q=38.54,-121.75%20%28University%20of%20California%2C%20Davis%29&amp;t=h\">University of California at Davis<\/a><br \/>\nGreg Clark writes:<br \/>\nDismal scientists: how the crash is reshaping economics: The current recession has revealed the weaknesses in the structures of modern capitalism. But it also revealed as useless the mathematical contortions of academic economics&#8230;. The debate about the bank bailout, and the stimulus package, has all revolved around issues that are entirely at the level of Econ 1.  What is the multiplier from <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Government spending\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Government_spending\">government spending<\/a>?  Does government spending crowd out private spending?  How quickly can you increase government spending? If you got a A in college in Econ 1 you are an expert in this debate: fully an equal of Summers and Geithner. The bailout debate has also been conducted in terms that would be quite familiar to economists in the 1920s and <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"1930s\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1930s\">1930s<\/a>. There has essentially been no advance in our knowledge in 80 years.<br \/>\nIt has seen people like <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"J. Bradford DeLong\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/J._Bradford_DeLong\">Brad DeLong<\/a> accuse distinguished macro-economists like <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Eugene Fama\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eugene_Fama\">Eugene Fama<\/a> and <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"John Cochrane\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Cochrane\">John Cochrane<\/a> of the <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"University of Chicago\" rel=\"geolocation\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=41.7897222222,-87.5997222222&amp;spn=1.0,1.0&amp;q=41.7897222222,-87.5997222222%20%28University%20of%20Chicago%29&amp;t=h\">University of Chicago<\/a> of at least one &#8220;elementary, freshman mistake.&#8221;<br \/>\nWell, Greg? Don&#8217;t be shy. Be brave! Tell us: Is Fama right? Does the NIPA savings-investment identity guarantee that the stimulus cannot work because of 100% crowding out? Or has he made an elementary, freshman mistake?<br \/>\nGreg goes on:<br \/>\nBizarrely, suddenly everyone is interested in economics, but most academic economists are ill-equipped to address these issues. Recently a group of economists affiliated with the <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Cato Institute\" rel=\"homepage\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cato.org\">Cato Institute<\/a> ran an ad in the <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"The New York Times Company\" rel=\"geolocation\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=40.7561111111,-73.9902777778&amp;spn=1.0,1.0&amp;q=40.7561111111,-73.9902777778%20%28The%20New%20York%20Times%20Company%29&amp;t=h\">New York Times<\/a> opposing the Obama&#8217;s stimulus plan.  As chair of my department I tried to arrange a public debate between one of the signatories and a proponent of fiscal stimulus &#8212; thinking that would be a timely and lively session.  <strong>But the signatory, a fully accredited university macroeconomist, declined the opportunity for public defense of his position on the grounds that &#8220;all I know on this issue I got from <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"N. Gregory Mankiw\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/N._Gregory_Mankiw\">Greg Mankiw<\/a>&#8216;s blog &#8212; I really am not equipped to debate this with anyone&#8221;&#8230;<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/delong.typepad.com\/sdj\/2009\/02\/gregory-clark-is-chairman-of-the-department-of-economics-at-the-university-of-california-at-davis.html\">Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Gregory Clark Is Chairman of the Department of Economics at the University of California at Davis<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/dd>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Zemified by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/reblog.zemanta.com\/zemified\/4e73fa02-69b0-4aa5-aecb-45d2939a82bc\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: medium none ; float: right;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.zemanta.com\/reblog_e.png?w=525\" alt=\"Reblog this post [with Zemanta]\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image via Wikipedia Gregory Clark Is Chairman of the Department of Economics at the University of California at Davis Greg Clark writes: Dismal scientists: how the crash is reshaping economics: The current recession has revealed the weaknesses in the structures of modern capitalism. But it also revealed as useless the mathematical contortions of academic economics&#8230;. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/2009\/02\/18\/repost-needs-to-be-broadcast-why-arent-you-ashamed-of-yourselves-grasping-reality-with-both-hands-gregory-clark-is-chairman-of-the-department-of-economics-at-the-university-of-california-at-da\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;rePost : Needs to be Broadcast, Why Aren&#039;t You Ashamed Of Yourselves!: Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Gregory Clark Is Chairman of the Department of Economics at the University of California at Davis&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,79],"tags":[299,470,521,649,773,989,1391,1465],"class_list":["post-1086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-reposts","tag-cato-institute","tag-economic","tag-eugene-fama","tag-gregory-clark","tag-john-cochrane","tag-n-gregory-mankiw","tag-the-new-york-times-company","tag-university-of-chicago"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}