Thursday, May 01, 2008

The prophet Jeremiah is alive and well and teaching economics at Harvard

This is the best article related in a way or another to Economics that I've read so far this week: Roy Weintraub reviewing Stephen Marglin's new book "The Dismal Science. How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community", for Science.

I have to say that on a scale from 1 to 10, I'd give 11 to Weintraub's review (here's Roy Weintraub's site, by the way): a state-of-the-art example of how sarcasm and irony can be used to fight against nonsense. We love it! Next to the opening sentence of Weintraub's review, which is also the title of my post, I'd single out its superb ending:

"I note in closing that the lead dust-jacket blurb for this volume was provided by the noted economist and social theorist Bianca Jagger (sic). Whatever was Harvard University Press thinking?"

Indeed, a darkest black point for Harvard University Press and a brightest red point for Science.


PS1. I've also learnt, for the first time, that even in such places like Harvard, some dinosaurs still roam around...

PS2. Note that this was the second attempted murder of Economics and economists I've talked about today. Dangerous times ahead...

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