Monday, October 23, 2006
Program Note
by Tom Bozzo
Also, Henry Farrell already said much of what I was going to say about Roger Lowenstein's lame review of Jacob Hacker's The Great Risk Shift, so I'll point you there as a proxy to a post.
To offer a topic to the co-bloggers for possible discussion, one thing I'll suggest is that Hacker may have given up too much ground in suggesting that certain of the private sector depredations on regular folk that Lowenstein says he "whines" about (**) can't or shouldn't be undone. That anything the private sector does is Only Right and Natural is as facially false as a suggestion that "market discipline" necessarily yields the "best" prices (***).
Evaluating how much Hacker actually gave away in his discussion will have to wait for a return of my free time.
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(*) Not that it necessarily matters, as the Rest of the World's fascination with Anne Hathaway drives unprecedented amounts of search-engine traffic here.
(**) As if CEOs wouldn't whine their way straight to court if their boards told them that the realities of globalization meant that they'd have to give up personal use of the company jets during their retirements.
(***) See, e.g., the first installment of David Cay Johnston's NY Times series on the miracles of electricity deregulation, continued here. Of course, what's implicit is competitive market outcomes, but if those could be taken for granted as a state to which markets naturally gravitated, much of the economics profession would be unemployed.
The next few days will be maximally busy in my "real" "life," so expect little posting from me over the course of the next week. (*) I trust that the co-bloggers will step up in the meanwhile, especially if Republican desperation for money keeps Ken in Wingnut Watch material.
Also, Henry Farrell already said much of what I was going to say about Roger Lowenstein's lame review of Jacob Hacker's The Great Risk Shift, so I'll point you there as a proxy to a post.
To offer a topic to the co-bloggers for possible discussion, one thing I'll suggest is that Hacker may have given up too much ground in suggesting that certain of the private sector depredations on regular folk that Lowenstein says he "whines" about (**) can't or shouldn't be undone. That anything the private sector does is Only Right and Natural is as facially false as a suggestion that "market discipline" necessarily yields the "best" prices (***).
Evaluating how much Hacker actually gave away in his discussion will have to wait for a return of my free time.
------------------
(*) Not that it necessarily matters, as the Rest of the World's fascination with Anne Hathaway drives unprecedented amounts of search-engine traffic here.
(**) As if CEOs wouldn't whine their way straight to court if their boards told them that the realities of globalization meant that they'd have to give up personal use of the company jets during their retirements.
(***) See, e.g., the first installment of David Cay Johnston's NY Times series on the miracles of electricity deregulation, continued here. Of course, what's implicit is competitive market outcomes, but if those could be taken for granted as a state to which markets naturally gravitated, much of the economics profession would be unemployed.
