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cooper

The Economist on the candidates

Posted by cooper • 10/05/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: Economy, free markets, links, politics

Interesting articles

The Economist/Examining the candidates:

www.economist.com/world/unitedstates
/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342127

If you read it, and have taken econ you know econ is an ideologically conservative discipline, "The Economist" being toward the more conservative end of that spectrum most of the time, so this is interesting.

Also if you read Harpers there is an interesting 6 page essay on economics/free markets "Let there be markets:
The evangelical roots of economics".
harpers.org/archive/2005/05/0080538

It ends with this paragraph
"The first evangelicals
fought for free trade because they thought it would encourage virtuous behavior,
but two centuries of capitalism have taught a different lesson,
many times over. The wages of sin are often, and notoriously, a private jet
and a wicked stock-option package. The wages of hard moral choice are
often $5.15 an hour. Free markets don't promote public virtue; they promote
private interest. In this way they are neither "free" (that is, independent
of human influence) nor uniformly helpful in promoting freedom.
Market trends are not truly indicative of the kind of society that Americans
wish to create for their children. Consumer demand-for gated
homes, exurban sprawl, or fluorescent-dyed sugar titration kits called cereal-
does not reflect democratic political choice. If indeed economics is
this society's most authoritative version of its own story, ours is a notoriously
unreliable narrator. "

Read it if you are interested. If you can't read but the first page and want to let me know.

Reply

User Comments

  1. clioandme
    10/05/08
    clioandme
    Lead-in to that Economist piece:

    > As the financial crisis pushes the economy back to the top
    > of voters’ concerns, Barack Obama is starting to open up a
    > clear lead over John McCain in the opinion polls. But
    > among those who study economics for a living, Mr Obama’s
    > lead is much more commanding. A survey of academic
    > economists by The Economist finds the majority—at times by
    > overwhelming margins—believe Mr Obama has the superior
    > economic plan, a firmer grasp of economics and will
    > appoint better economic advisers.

    Link again, since the other was broken into two lines: www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342127

    Thanks for both interesting tips, Cooper.
    [reply]
  2. Anok
    10/05/08
    Anok
    I lover Harper's. I will read them after my morning coffee
    [reply]
  3. clioandme
    10/05/08
    clioandme
    Just realized that the Harper's piece is from 2005, which makes it that much more interesting.
    [reply]
    1. cooper
      10/05/08
      cooper
      yeah I forgot to say old article, but yes makes it more interesting.

      Thanks for fixing the link.

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