A few more thoughts on John Quiggin's piece about the hackery of conservative economists. As he says, the striking thing isn't that people like Larry "bubbleheads" Kudlow continue to talk nonsense, it's the way "respectable" economists toe the line 1/ crookedtimber.org/2018/04/09/hac…
For example, you don't get someone with more mainstream credentials than John Taylor, he of the famous monetary policy rule. He doesn't need to abase himself to politicians. Yet he spent the Obama years lending his name to utterly misleading claims about policy 2/
He claimed a huge spending surge that never happened; he predicted runaway inflation and refused to acknowledge having been wrong; he went in for conspiracy theories about the Fed being the the tank for Obama 3/ krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/qe-…
And the pathetic thing is, none of it worked -- not for him, not for any of the long list of economists Quiggin cites. None of this group was rewarded with a major policy position; instead, Trump went for Kudlow and Kevin "Dow 36,000" Hassett. 4/
I don't think this is an accident. Politicians who want charlatans and cranks want the genuine articles -- anyone with some real expertise, no matter what nonsense he's talking now, might rediscover his professional conscience at some point 5/
I almost feel sorry for these guys. But on second thought, never mind. They sold their birthright for a mess of Trumpage, and have only themselves to blame 6/
