When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir? — John Maynard Keynes
Reply to a criticism during the Great Depression of having changed his position on monetary policy, as quoted in "The Keynes Centenary" by Paul Samuelson, in The Economist Vol. 287 (1983), p. 19; later in The Collected Scientific Papers of Paul Samuelson, Volume 5 (1986), p. 275; also in "Understanding Political Development: an Analytic Study" (1987) by Myron Weiner, Samuel P. Huntington and Gabriel Abraham Almond, p. xxiv; this has also been paraphrased as "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" — Wikiquote
Richard Posner apparently agrees. What about the rest of them?
‘How I became a Keynesian’ — Richard Posner
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University
4 comments:
The academe doesn't like it when one among them changes their mind..
Right. Posner is a huge name, and I haven't seen any of the other Chicago School and fellow travelers mention this. It's a big deal and they seemingly have just ignored it. I wonder if he still gets invited to cocktail parties.
Imo this is a big part of it Tom.... you have all of these people in the academe who wrote something about economics when we were under the gold and now they dont for some reason want to be seen as modifying their past conclusions.... its childish imo...
Not really. Groupthink is very powerful - particularly if you need your ego stroked.
For example in the UK the lefty circle close ranks if you question the marvellousness of the EU, the rationality of unlimited immigration, the viability of a citizens income or the infallibility of the central bank.
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