For Immediate Release
Alan Greenspan has been judged the economist most responsible for causing the Global Financial Crisis. He and 2nd and 3rd place finishers Milton Friedman and Larry Summers have won the first–and hopefully last—Dynamite Prize in Economics.
The prize was developed by the Real World Economics Review Blog in response to attempts by economists to evade responsibility for the crisis by calling it an unpredictable, “Black Swan” event. In reality, the public perception that economic theories and policies helped cause the crisis is correct.
The prize winners were determined by a poll in which over 7,500 people voted—most of whom were economists themselves from the 11,000 subscribers to the
real-world economics review
. Each voter could vote for a maximum of three economists. In total 18,531 votes were cast.
“Some of these rebels also did what neoclassical economists falsely claimed was impossible: they foresaw the Global Financial Crisis and warned the public of its approach. In their honour, I now call for nominations for the inaugural Revere Award in Economics, named in honour of Paul Revere and his famous ride. It will be awarded to the 3 economists who saw the GFC coming, and whose work is most likely to prevent another GFC in the future.”
Dynamite Prize Citations
Milton Friedman (3,349 votes): Friedman propagated the delusion, through his misunderstanding of the scientific method, that an economy can be accurately modeled using counterfactual propositions about its nature. This, together with his simplistic model of money, encouraged the development of fantasy-based theories of economics and finance that facilitated the Global Financial Collapse.
In total 18,531 votes were cast. The vote totals for the other finalists were:
Fischer Black and Myron Scholes 2,016 Eugene Fama 1,668 Paul Samuelson 1,291 Robert Lucas 912 Richard Portes 433 Edward Prescott and Finn E. Kydland 403 Assar Lindbeck 375
The poll was conducted by PollDaddy. Cookies were used to prevent repeat voting.
For further information and interviews email: [log in to unmask]
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