Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Chicago is a Long Way From Kirkcaldy

Simoleon Sense HERE contains this erroneous gem:

“The Profile Of Robert Shiller, Mr. Bubble” (via Yale Alumni Magazine)

They argue that flaws and excess are inherent to a market economy — and that they are not minor. “The economics of the textbooks seeks to minimize as much as possible departures from pure economic motivation and from rationality,” Akerlof and Shiller write. “Our book marks a break with this tradition. In our view economic theory should be derived not from the minimal deviations from the system of Adam Smith but rather from the deviations that actually do occur and can be observed.


Comment
The problem with this gem is to which “system of Adam Smith” is Simeon Sense referring?

Is it the invented system of “pure economic motivation and from rationality”, otherwise known as the “Chicago Adam Smith” of post-1950s US academe, Nobel Prize winners and all, or is it the system of the Adam Smith born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland in 1723, as outlined in his "Moral Sentiments" (1759) and his “Wealth Of Nations" (1776)?

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1 Comments:

Blogger Phil Ordway said...

Dear Gavin,

Thank you for kindly linking to SimoleonSense. I follow your blog rather actively. Keep up the great work.

Best Regards,

Miguel Barbosa
Founder Of SimoleonSense

5:05 pm  

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