Former co-blogger Arnold Kling writes:
I am not going to be bullied into supporting policies that I believe are bad just because they are popular. If you want to talk me out of my position against a policy, tell me what is good about the policy.
Well said.
I should add that I don’t have time to read the two posts he’s commenting on. So I don’t know if his post is on target or not. It doesn’t matter for my purposes. What I like is the quote above because it’s important in its own right.
Nov 11 2016
In our 5-minute discussion in class on Wednesday, a student asked me about the implications of the Indian government's crackdown on people holding high-denomination currency. I didn't know much about it and gave a so-so answer. Now I know more. This piece lays out some facts and some of the ominous implications. Som...
Nov 10 2016
It's difficult to know what Trump will do about monetary policy, or any other issue for that matter. Lars Christensen has suggested that inflation expectations are rising due to the perception that Trump will do massive infrastructure spending. (And a follow-up post here.) I don't know whether a Republican Congress...
Nov 10 2016
Former co-blogger Arnold Kling writes: I am not going to be bullied into supporting policies that I believe are bad just because they are popular. If you want to talk me out of my position against a policy, tell me what is good about the policy. Well said. I should add that I don't have time to read the two posts he's...
READER COMMENTS
Alexandre Padilla
Nov 10 2016 at 1:41pm
His post is on target when it comes to Noah Smith’s post. But Noah Smith is just not an academic so he doesn’t understand or won’t understand that the study of free markets from a comparative institutional perspective is a valid research program. He somewhat thinks that academic research ought to be relevant for public policy purposes and,more importantly, politically practical.
Thaomas
Nov 10 2016 at 3:06pm
My feeling about the carbon tax.
Thaomas
Nov 10 2016 at 3:53pm
In context I think Kling’s comment was a bit off in that the “bad” policy he was not being bullied over — making the safety net fairer and more efficient — was argued to be a “less bad” policy than the alternative — “populist policies.” For example, instead of a higher EITC, we get minimum wages.
Comments are closed.