 |
 |
One thought has occured to me about the so-called economic revival. I have discovered that a quarter of the so-called GDP depends on factoring in estimations of productivity in sectors which have estimated rather than measured output, for example the NHS - seeing more patients. In other words, the more ill-health there is in the nation, possibly caused by a decline in economic standards, the greater our GDP! Any thoughts? John Urquhart On 29 September 2013 12:35, the.Duke.of.URL <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Hi all, > > Stephanie Flanders has moved to JP Morgan. Some apparently feel bereft, as > they think that the BBC has lost a good economist. I feel the opposite. If > JP Morgan feels she is good, this is evidence that she isn't good. Her short > series on macroeconomics made a number of rather egregious errors that > someone of her experience you might think wouldn't make. I would have to > watch the program again to list them. So, for the moment, you will have to > take my word for this. > > You may counterargue that Willem Buiter went to Citicorp. Does this, > therefore, indicate that Buiter isn't very good? No, it doesn't. Buiter is > in fact a decent economist. Citicorp wooed him from the LSE because he was > quite knowledgeable about how banks work. Flanders, on the other hand, > doesn't really know how the macroeconomy works. > > One error Flanders has made consistently, and which is made in today's > Observer by Heather Stewart, is the implied claim that taxpayers support, in > some way, government spending. The truth is that, in the economic system we > have, taxes do not underwrite government spending at all. Taxes play other > roles and have other functions, one of them being the potential for the > redistribution of income. This is not the place for me to go into detail > about why this is so, as one needs to lay a lot of foundations in order to > properly justify this contention. > > Sadly, Flanders isn't the only newspaper or TV economist who seems to be > economically error prone. Nevertheless, she has moved to where I have always > believed she truly belonged - in a neoclassical citadel. The BBC now has an > opportunity to replace her with someone with a non-mainstream economic > background. Whether it will bite this particular bullet, only time will > tell. But I won't be holding my breath. > > > larry > > Dr L Brownstein > [Alt-e] [log in to unmask] > > Review Editor > Radical Statistics > > ****************************************************** Please note that if > you press the 'Reply' button your message will go only to the sender of this > message. If you want to reply to the whole list, use your mailer's > 'Reply-to-All' button to send your message automatically to > [log in to unmask] Disclaimer: The messages sent to this list are the > views of the sender and cannot be assumed to be representative of the range > of views held by subscribers to the Radical Statistics Group. To find out > more about Radical Statistics and its aims and activities and read current > and past issues of our newsletter you are invited to visit our web site > www.radstats.org.uk. ******************************************************* ****************************************************** Please note that if you press the 'Reply' button your message will go only to the sender of this message. If you want to reply to the whole list, use your mailer's 'Reply-to-All' button to send your message automatically to [log in to unmask] Disclaimer: The messages sent to this list are the views of the sender and cannot be assumed to be representative of the range of views held by subscribers to the Radical Statistics Group. To find out more about Radical Statistics and its aims and activities and read current and past issues of our newsletter you are invited to visit our web site www.radstats.org.uk. *******************************************************