Peter Dorman — Pope vs Prof: Which One Is Infallible?

Today’s New York Times has an article that claims that “leading economists” (paragraph four) and “environmental economists” (paragraph eight) are upset with Francis for the economic portion of his encyclical “Laudato Si”. Their sole source for this is Harvard’s Robert Stavins, who is quoted as saying that the Pope “is out of step with the thinking and the work of informed policy analysts around the world, who recognize that we can do more, faster, and better with the use of market-based policy instruments...” Later he compares the Pope’s line of thinking to a

small set of socialist Latin American countries that are opposed to the world economic order, fearful of free markets, and have been utterly dismissive and uncooperative in the international climate negotiations....

That’s quite a put-down. Francis is one of these south-of-the-border pinkos, an enemy of freedom, and out of step with educated opinion. That’s Stavins’ side of the story.

What’s the other side?....

Econospeak
Pope vs Prof: Which One Is Infallible?
Peter Dorman, Professor of Political Economy, The Evergreen State College