Below is an interview with James K. Galbraith, an economic professor at University of Texas, USA. What I find interesting is his answer to this question:
What does that say about the field of economics, which claims to be a science? It’s an enormous blot on the reputation of the profession. There are thousands of economists. Most of them teach. And most of them teach a theoretical framework that has been shown to be fundamentally useless.
Do you find it odd that so few economists foresaw the current credit disaster? Some did. The person with the most serious claim for seeing it coming is Dean Baker, the Washington economist. I saw it coming in general terms.
But there are at least 15,000 professional economists in this country, and you’re saying only two or three of them foresaw the mortgage crisis? Ten or 12 would be closer than two or three.
But there are at least 15,000 professional economists in this country, and you’re saying only two or three of them foresaw the mortgage crisis? Ten or 12 would be closer than two or three.
What does that say about the field of economics, which claims to be a science? It’s an enormous blot on the reputation of the profession. There are thousands of economists. Most of them teach. And most of them teach a theoretical framework that has been shown to be fundamentally useless.
You’re referring to the Washington-based conservative philosophy that rejects government regulation in favor of free-market worship? Reagan’s economists worshiped the market, but Bush didn’t worship the market. Bush simply turned over regulatory authority to his friends. It enabled all the shady operators and card sharks in the system to come to dominate how we finance.
So you claim in your recent book, “The Predator State,” but will President Bush actually be leaving Washington a richer man? Presidents don’t make money in office; they do so afterward. In his case, I hope he won’t. Maybe his friends will abandon him.
What do you think the future holds for Vice President Cheney? I suspect that Cheney will spend much of his life fending off legal challenges, but that is a different area. I’m quite sure that the human rights issues will follow him for the rest of his life.
Any thoughts on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who engineered the bailout? He is clearly not a superman. This is the guy who had the financial crisis on his plate for a year, and when it finally became so pervasive that he couldn’t handle it on a case-by-case basis, the best he could do was send Congress a bill that was three pages long.
What’s wrong with that? Maybe he’s pithy. It shows he wasn’t adequately prepared. The bill did not contain protections for the public that Congress had to put in.
Regulation is the new mantra, and even Alan Greenspan in his mea culpa before Congress seemed to regret he hadn’t used more of it. I would say a day late and a dollar short. Greenspan blotted his copybook disastrously with his support of deregulated finance. This is a follower of Ayn Rand, an old Objectivist. His belief was you can’t really regulate and discipline the market and you shouldn’t try. I think Greenspan bears a high, high degree of responsibility for what has happened.
As a longtime professor at the University of Texas, where you hold a chair in the LBJ School of Public Affairs, what do you do with your own money? As little as possible. I am in the happy position of not having too much.
That sounds vaguely communistic. Well, maybe academic life has a touch of that, but it’s comfortable compared with the real thing.
Over the years, you’ve stayed loyal to the liberal ideas of your celebrated father, John Kenneth Galbraith. That’s right.
Did you go through any kind of Oedipal crisis when you were younger? No, I went through the non-Oedipal crisis of having a father who was always one step ahead.
Now that the economy has tanked, do you think that progressive economists will come to enjoy a new glamour? I personally never suffered a deficit of public attention.
That sounds a little smug. That’s true. Let’s add that a great many other progressive economists have basically suffered a deficit of attention, and these events should raise their profile enormously.
INTERVIEW CONDUCTED, CONDENSED AND EDITED BY DEBORAH SOLOMON
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