Friday, January 30, 2009

The CATO 200

I got an email today, suggesting that I should be embarrassed to be one of the "CATO 200." (Link to ad)

In fact, according to this emailer, I should be MUCH more embarrassed to be one of the CATO 200 than ANY of the "Duke Lacrosse 88."

I guess I see the point....both were paid ads. But the CATO 200 ad is an existence proof that the claim of professional ecnomists' unanimity on the need for a bailout is not true. Everyone listed in the ad is a professional economist, from many different universities. (5 from Duke, interestingly).

The Duke 88 ad was....something else, IMHO. I have several friends (friends then, and friends now) who signed it. They were, and are, welcome to express their view.

But the ads have pretty different objectives. I don't think the analogy is very insightful.

And the real message, as in this very nice piece at CBS News, is that the unanimusts should just try to get out a little more, and broaden their social circle.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, Brad DeLong is getting a bit desperate if he's going to email all 200 of you.

Simon Spero said...

I don't see how you can possibly find any arguments against priming the pump-action.

Even Durham's public schools teach better than that. Why last week, some enterprising fellows did their part by smashing the window on my car so they could redistribute the GPS unit, thus making sure that the glaziers had ample work to do.

Surely anyone can see how that stimulates the economy.

Anonymous said...

Mungowitz,

This is just one more example of why students, alums, and faculty hold you in such high esteem.

Old Dukie