> Oh, that's OK then. I'll stop my carping and let PK continue > his tireless task of speaking truth to power. > > Carl
I know you're being ironic, but I'll reply in a non-ironic way: PK doesn't speak truth to power except within the usual political context of "what's good for capital" (the real world of power that's idealized by economists like PK as a "market system" perceived as good -- with some technocratic fiddling -- for "the public interest" as long as "special interests" like labor unions don't have excessive influence). What's really venial among academic economists is the "winner-take-all" system in which "super-star" economists (who are selected by similarly-minded neoclassical ideologues) run the "top" graduate programs, get abundant research grants, attain high-paying positions, publish in "prestigious" journals, etc., which allow them to in turn pull in cash from corporations as consultants, to publish in establishmentarian outlets like the NY TIMES, and to choose the next group of super-stars, while deciding which departments are "top," who gets grants, who gets promoted, which journals are "prestigious" and who gets published in them, etc. In this context, PK is what C. Wright Mills termed a "new entrepreneur" (in his WHITE COLLAR), a person who prospers by jumping back and forth between academic, business, and government bureaucracies (like Henry the K). Jim Devine
