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> particularly when economics isn’t even invoked in the discussion… I think the Professor Cowen fancies himself in the way of the “public intellectual,” so tha
by kashunstva 2y ago
> particularly when economics isn’t even invoked in the discussion…
I think the Professor Cowen fancies himself in the way of the “public intellectual,” so that he takes the liberty to write on a range of topics outside the domain of his academic focus. He does seem extraordinarily well-read; and in many topics he writes about, I have no way of judging his contribution to those fields. While I occasionally read MR, it strikes me as quite technocratic in the way that most libertarian writing is; and this sort of socioeconomic analysis detached from human values of empathy and concern for the wellbeing of the collective isn’t appealing to me personally. But I’m sure it fills an important niche.
- pydry 2y agoHe is part of the Koch network: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercatus_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercatus_Center Their money is probably a large reason his content gets well promoted. The Kochs got into politics in the 1980s because of a series of fights with the EPA whom they thought were getting in the way of their chemical company's right to pollute. If you've ever heard a morality play written about hairdresser licensing and why it means Regulation is Bad - that was them, and it leaks on to hacker news sometimes. E.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42982578 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42982578 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31765644 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31765644 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31382755 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31382755 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18798111 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18798111 They also really like using their money to bludgeon American economics departments into teaching economics the way they "like" it: http://bridgeproject.com/research/koch-impacts-florida/koch-attempts-to-influence-florida-state-university/ http://bridgeproject.com/research/koch-impacts-florida/koch-...