#D24, #D25 & #D26 2011: Holiday Blog, Part II

Occupy Wall Street Sign for the Holidays, Part II

#D24

12:00 AM:  Christmas in Egypt



12:13 AM: Naomi Klein article on the economy and the environment (it's a good companion for her arguments in the panel, linked directly above).

12:25 AM: Facebook and the CIA....



3:13 PM: An atheist perspective on Christmas.


3:20 PM: Very interesting article on steady-state economics (a/k/a ecological economics); I would LOVE to interview Daly or his UK protege.

3:24 PM: Sarah Jaffe interview with labor organizer Stephen Lerner about OWS.

3:33 PM: Sam Seder on the War on Christmas....

 

3:41 PM: Matt Taibbi Christmas post.

3:46 PM: Pottersville - song written by Blank Squirrel for Sam Seder (someone please put a video together).

4:02 PM: So, Jeff Madrick wrote a "worst of" article that's been getting lots of play in the econoblogosphere. Since I'm currently writing something economic-y and since this blog hearts Jeff Madrick and since my Dad just sent it to me, here's Jeff Madrick on The 10 Worst Economic Ideas of 2011.

#D26


10:06 AM: (h/y rjs):



10:08 AM: Sam Seder interviews economist regarding steady-state economics.

10:11 AM: The Trouble with Principles: Or, How to Not Lose Friends and Alienate People When Learning Economics (#OccupyWallStreet, #OWS) (h/t rjs):

Economics has always been something of a battleground, but in November a group of about seventy Harvard students opened a new front in the ongoing hostilities: its introductory pedagogy. In solidarity with the Occupy movement, the students staged a walkout of their principles course to protest what they called its “inherent bias.”

In his rebuttal in the New York Times, Greg Mankiw countered that his teaching is careful to avoid policy conclusions and that its subject matter falls squarely within the current mainstream of the discipline. Narrowly correct, he nonetheless profoundly missed the broader points that his students, to be fair, seemed unable to articulate fully.

Firstly, one needn’t make explicit policy prescriptions to reproduce, in generation after generation of students, the fetishization of “free markets” that has been eroding civil society worldwide. If not quite a wink and a nod, then an omission here and oversimplification there will do just fine. That’s precisely the tack Mankiw takes in his introductory textbook, Principles of Economics. His approach is surely only in the name of student accessibility, but we all have good intentions, don’t we?

Secondly, it is precisely the mainstream of economics that is complicit in the ongoing economic upheaval and ensuing social unrest we’re witnessing worldwide. Mankiw is correct in pointing out that his textbook is hardly unique, but, to tweak the aphorism, one man’s modus tollens is another’s modus ponens. That Mankiw’s style of teaching basic economics is common is less exculpatory of this style than it is damning of his discipline for almost universally adopting it. If Mankiw wants to quote Paul Samuelson, he should also heed his lament shortly before his passing: “Alas, many textbooks have strayed too far toward over-complacent libertarianism.”

10:21 AM: Leftwing Nutjob on Time's Person of the Year: The Protestor:

On this past Saturday Morning’s, Up w/Chris Hayes, he starts his show talking about this same topic and it’s quite good, following many of the same lines that Kurt Anderson did in his piece: from Tunisia to Wall Street to Moscow..people are rising up and making their voices heard. People are demanding equality and real Democracy..not the fake shit we see here in America, where the rich own our government via their lobbyists and campaign contributions.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

10:38 AM: Pepper spray used on Occupy Albany (h/t rjs).








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