[ via Brain Log ] As a recovering economist, I appreciated Jonathan Rowe’s article on his experience at an American Economic Association panel discussion on the coverage of economics in the media. Rowe had written an article in the Atlantic Monthly about how GDP was measured and how non-monetary transactions (parenting, housekeeping, helping friends and neighbours for example) aren’t counted; while monetized responses to harm (medical care for cancer caused by exposure to man-made toxins, cleaning up an oil spill) aren’t. He was taken to task on this thesis by Paul Krugman (the Steven Jay Gould of Economics) and then undersecretary of the Treasury, Larry Summers (well known for a lack of tact which would make an engineer blush.)
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