On Jeff Madrick’s “How Mainstream Economic Thinking Imperils America”: Daily Focus
On Jeff Madrick’s “How Mainstream Economic Thinking Imperils America”
J. Bradford DeLong :: U.C. Berkeley :: Prepared: 2014-10-22
The Seven Bad Ideas Jeff Madrick Sees
- The “Invisible Hand”
- Say’s Law
- Friedman’s Folly: Government’s Limited * Social Role
- Low Inflation Is All That Matters
- “There Are No Bubbles”
- Globalization Is Always Good
Economics Is a Science
In Madrick’s Introduction
- Praised in the Introduction: John Maynard Keynes, Dani Rodrik
- Criticized in the Introduction:
- Adam Smith–no comment necessary…
- Olivier Blanchard–the de facto leader of the Sixth International: on the left of the spectrum of policymakers…
- Larry Summers–principal advocate of the Keynesian expansionary-fiscal solution to our troubles…
- Milton Friedman–when he was alive, the most powerful advocate of unlimited quantitative easing…
- Bob Rubin–on his watch big banks were bailed-in during financial crises, not bailed-out…
- Ben Bernanke–most left-wing central banker we had (although I will concede his attachment to 2%/year inflation target, and failure to reach it, are huge minuses)…
- Robert Lucas–underbriefed and destructive…
Reading Along…
-
Madrick on Christina Romer:
- “In a piece she wrote for The New York Times criticizing an increase in the minimum wage, Christina Romer, the former Obama adviser and considered by many to be a political liberal, implicitly made this same oversimplified assumption that workers usually get what they deserve. This is an example of Friedman’s broad influence…”
-
Romer:
- We have better policies available: expand the EITC is better targeted
For the long-run, universal kindergarten and pre-K have more bang for the buck
And these are expansionary fiscal policy–spending money gives a macroeconomic boost as well
But if the choice is for a higher minimum wage or nothing, I’m for a higher minimum wage…
- We have better policies available: expand the EITC is better targeted
Food for Thought
- Of these 8 whom Madrick criticizes…
- …Somewhere between 5 and 7 are to the left of current North Atlantic policymakers
- Not excluding Obama
PFoJ vs. JPF, Perhaps?
- A little misplaced ire, I think…
- But I don’t want to go there…
- I would rather go to…
I See Four Yawning Gulfs
- Between:
- the economic policies that those whom I regard as “serious” economists are advocating, and
- those that are being implemented…
- Between:
- what economics says, and
- what right-of-center economists are telling their political masters it says…
- Between:
- what economics says, and
- what economics should say…
- Between:
- my “inside” view of what I think economics says, and
- Jeff Madrick’s “outside” view of what he thinks economics says…
As I See It
- The problem of where economics starts
- The problem of the decreasing relevance of the Smithian model
- The stringent requirements for market effectiveness
Current policy and current tasks
- Where Economics Starts
- Economics starts from the presumption:
- that market success is the benchmark, and
- that market failure is anomalous
- It ought to start from the presumption:
- that market construction is difficult
- It ought to have:
- a grammar of other forms of organization—
- command, bureaucracy, charity, cooperative, regulated monopoly, yardsticks, etc.—
- and where they succeed and where they fail
Decreasing Relevance of the Smithian Model
- We have a great deal of economic life in sectors where we know the market will not work well, and
- These sectors will only grow in relative importance:
- Pensions
- Health-care finance
- Education
- Infrastructure
- Research and development
- Information goods more generally
The Stringent Requirements for Market Effectiveness
- Here are seven requirements:
- Distribution of wealth corresponding to fairness and utility
- Aggregate demand matched to potential supply
- Competition
- Calculation
- Rivalry
- Excludability
- Information symmetries
- And, no, a night-watchman, a court, and cutting property rights at the joints will not get us there
Current Policy and Current Tasks
- Policy is far to the right of even where the really-existing economics profession is
- At least, where the “serious” piece of it, in an intellectual sense, is
*And it is not to the smart right either - Why?
How to fix it?
- Books like Jeff’s, of course, but what else?
- Two tasks:
- Move the “serious” economics profession
- Move policymaking to the “serious” economics profession
- Both seem of equal importance and difficulty