Stossel: Bailouts and Bull

INC on March 15, 2009 at 3:56 PM

6.7% are actually trained economists?

Given the economic illiteracy rampant in that institution, I’m surprised it’s that high.

JohnGalt23 on March 15, 2009 at 4:14 PM

Although, the degree in economics is not all that important. I’m more concerned with all the politicians who’ve never held a private sector job.

myrenovations on March 15, 2009 at 4:30 PM

Actually that doesn’t concern me all that much. After all, there are some fine public sector jobs (military, post office, fireman, teacher), all of which I would prefer to some private sector experience (trial lawyer, divorce lawyer, professor of law… do you see a pattern developing here?).

And it’s no so much the dearth of degrees in economics in Congress that bothers me. I’m sure at my alma mater there weren’t that many more than 7% of graduates with an economics degree.

What bothers me is that there are so many members of Congress who either clearly have had no education in economics, or didn’t pay attention in the economics classes they took. I’d be willing to bet that if you took all the MOC’s with law degrees and looked at their courses of study, I bet half of them never studied any economics. The economic illiteracy amongst the ruling class in this country sickens me.

Of course, I say that as someone frained in economics, so maybe I’m just another rent seeker. :)

JohnGalt23 on March 15, 2009 at 7:29 PM

Yeah but you have to remember that 90% of economics professors are Marxists. So that 6.7% is likely to have been indoctrinated for 4 years on the awesomeness of Marxism and all things “progressive”.

angryed on March 15, 2009 at 6:58 PM

Nonsense.

I’ve studied under a fair amount of econ profs, and heard a lot more give lectures. Not one of them would I consider a hardcore Marxist, and very few of them have been exposed to any Marx.

There are a lot of schools of thought within economics, none of which are Marxist dominated. Although Marx was an economist, he wasn’t a really good one (el suprise!). As such, most of his major tracts have little if anything to do with practical economics, and even Kapital (most of which was written by Engels, btw) is more a work of social philosophy than something around which to draw a school of economic thought.

Most economics profs (at least those who study economics solely, as opposed to liberal arts profs who also teach economics) that I’ve crossed paths with are what I would call reformed Keynsians; that is, they recognize the intellectual strength and staying power of Keynes, but also recognize the real-world strength of the monetarists, represented most often by Friedman. A few are hardcore Austrians, but honestly, it is really tough to get a tenure track appointment as an Austrian.

Where you most often run into Marxists are usually sociology departments and their assorted ilk (Women’s Studies, Ethnic Studies). Oddly enough, you really don’t run into many Marxists in Poli Sci depts, even though much of Marx was an early attempt to really apply scientific principles to politics. I’ve run into a few theorists who were disciples of Marx, but most IR people fall into schools that have no room for Marxist ideology (outside hardcore globalists), and most theory people (outside Rousseau disciples) trace their intellectual heritage to thinkers prior to Marx.

Of course, that might have something to do with the crowd I ran with. I stayed away from peers with sociology backgrounds, and spent time with those who, like me, had econ backgrounds.

JohnGalt23 on March 15, 2009 at 7:51 PM

angryed on March 15, 2009 at 8:05 PM

First of all, while a hardcore Marxist is likely to be a Democrat in this country, a Democrat is unlikely to be a hardcore Marxist.

Second, that is a survey of NBER economists. While NBER is rather prestigious, it is, I think, more likely to attract leftist economists, and most people who study economics at anything other than elite institutions are unlikely to ever study under one of its members.

JohnGalt23 on March 15, 2009 at 8:11 PM