Steve Levitt - Why You Can't Trust Economists

[bubbledum2012]

does he have a slight lisp or is it just me hearing that

[kitt998]

guy asking the question sounds like zod from superman II !!!

[nsg666]

To put it in the words of Keynes himself:

“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”

I guess that sums it up quite nicely really...

[piax00]

@nsg666 How about this McMurtry quote: "We might say that economics is to the corporate market what theology was to the medieval Church, the investitured deifier of the ruling order." Thanks for the Keynes quote.

[mango119]

That was really funny, cheers to Levitt. I see a point on why Macroeconomics is hard:)

[danteandmymonkey]

Interesting

[majik2hanz]

He should study "research". In particular, how often research reaffirms what the funders are seeking and then do a detailed summary of how often non reaffirming studies are publicized. For example, if a pharmaceutical company found in a double negative test that taking nothing results in better outcomes than getting drug, would it be published? Or testing whether the amount of money spent on research and by whom determines the outcome.

[hoodoo961]

Macroeconomics is only voodoo because it got away from the man who invented it: John Maynard Keynes.

[thiagomassara]

@hoodoo961 I believe even Keynes didn't want his theories applied in real life... he knows how dangerous it can be to give the government the power of monetary policy and therefore they would never work. Still, he made the perfect representation of the mechanisms in macroeconomics. That's the voodoo.

[jdm1982]

Extremely well handled and what I hope I'd say

[ntn1987]

The ultimate purpose of economics is to show ignorant bureaucrats and experts how useless they are. :-*

[stratvic]

The problem is two fold.

1. Keynesian economics is both politically popular due to the power it  bestows on politicians and is fundamentally flawed.

2. You can not predict how political behaviour and decisions will be balance what is sensible to achieve attributable short term effects against those that while illogical will buy enough votes for re-election.

[flynn2008]

@stratvic

I figure, economists would be pretty good at forecasting macroeconomic by now. It's not that hard, just imagine the dumbest thing the government could do, and wait 4-5 years to see the effects.

[biglmac]

He should do a collaborative work with Malcom Gladwell already. Come on! I wanna see the Freaking Point or Blinkonomics.

Well, in all seriousness, Levitt's great. Check out his TED talk.

[DaveTex2375]

He may be book smart about certain things but his book "FREAKONOMICS" is just a standard-issue marxist-socialist smearing of free-market economics.

[laximusprime15]

have you read it?

[DaveTex2375]

I will honestl tell you no. I have listened to a multiple perspective conversation on the book and that seems to be his deal. If I am mistaken I would be glad to admit it. I will discuss and argue if I believe I am correct but I am not one to assume I am that I am never wrong. The fact that 90% of economists agree with the ideas and reasoning behing the LAFFER CURVE and have tended to give ACTUAL NUMBERS and multiple examples to back up their arguements. Thumbs up to STRATVIC!!!

[d2s4ui5]

The book isn't even about economics, it's about human behavior, as determined by rationality, incentives, etc.

[thiagomassara]

@d2s4ui5 and how's that not economics?! oO

[Basehad]

@DaveTex2375 What did you find marxist-socialist about Freakonomics? I actually found it more Stalinist than marxist-socialist. Maybe a bit maoist, but certainly not marxist.

[LaRoucheisright]

LaRouche is the only one who can do it. See why

at LaRouchePACdotCom

[agespages]

the greed or 'want' of perfecting the income generating machine (business,stocks,real estate etc.) for man, has created a perfect way for finding the truth for any question possible through the input of economics' statistical procedures which gives an output (REALITY)

[fancygremlin]

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