{"id":33475,"date":"2011-10-31T21:20:52","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T03:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=33475"},"modified":"2011-10-31T21:20:55","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T03:20:55","slug":"no-more-junk-economics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/10\/no-more-junk-economics\/","title":{"rendered":"No more junk economics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Stephan Helgesen<\/p><\/div>\n

After watching and listening to economists and politicians ride the media merry-go-round, espousing their economic recovery plans and sounding like freshman economics teachers or Madison Avenue ad executives, I couldn\u2019t stand it anymore. I turned off the television set and thought about what\u2019s wrong with all their arguments, whether it\u2019s stimulus-based deficit spending, 9-9-9, or 20-20 in 2020. Then it came to me: What\u2019s wrong is that the economic theory we practice today is not science, though we insist it be presented as such.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s more like art \u2013 not the paint-by-numbers variety, but a traditional school of art like realism that depends on a few constants: a stable, unchanging motif; suspension of conscious analytical judgment (allowing only the eye and not the mind to judge the depiction of reality); and the use of dependable tools like the right brushes and paint or, as in the case of the marketplace, interest rates, taxes, incentives, investments, etc.<\/p>\n

There are many economic theories offered by economists and by the candidates for president, but for me they all seem to be based on predictability. The only problem is that real life is constantly changing, and human beings are always surprising us. Too often, economists and politicians look at a financial or economic situation and plot their strategies without factoring in enough \u201cwild cards\u201d or margin of error for cultural differences, changing mores, etc.<\/p>\n

If an economic strategy doesn\u2019t factor them in, we might as well as have someone like \u201cJimmy the Greek\u201d Snyder as our treasury secretary \u2013 a man whose lifetime success rate was dramatically better than that of most economists.<\/p>\n

Using an outdated prism<\/h3>\n

There are those (like the Occupy Wall Street protestors) who say our current economy was built on \u201cjunk economics\u201d and that capitalism is an onerous, one-sided, unfair system and ought to be replaced (though they don\u2019t say with what). Still others say that capitalism is dying or on life-support.<\/p>\n

Staying with the art analogy, our current economy more closely resembles the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollack than realism. We cannot analyze it correctly because we\u2019re using an outdated prism that only offers limited explanations based on outmoded assumptions.<\/p>\n

Unlike Jackson Pollack, who knew what he was trying to achieve, our politicians and candidates aren\u2019t completely sure (though they say it\u2019s \u201cjob creation\u201d as if full employment would entirely solve our economic problems). Surprisingly, their plans reflect a profound lack of understanding of the angry, confused, disheartened and distrustful America of 2011.<\/p>\n

Instead, the economic plans of the president and the candidates resemble the two major political parties\u2019 ideologies: For the Republicans, shrink government and empower the private sector and individual; and for the Democrats, grow government and empower the masses through government intervention and control.<\/p>\n

What we must demand<\/h3>\n

Americans are not economists, but they\u2019re not stupid, either. They want reform as contrasted with change, and the first place they\u2019re willing to go is the economy. The administration and the candidates must understand that and present an economic view of America that listens to both halves of America and incorporates elements from each philosophical camp. After all, we\u2019re just people who want to work, play, save, spend, love, and live within an economic system that doesn\u2019t go out of its way to injure or disadvantage anyone.<\/p>\n

To ensure that, we must be wary of junk economics or any theory whose success depends on unchanging conditions, whether those theories come from the White House, the Houses of Congress or the candidates\u2019 houses. We inherited capitalism and democracy, and with any inheritance, our attachment to it grows in direct proportion to our belief in its ability to enrich us.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, we must not only demand that the economic recovery plans presented to us in the coming months are based on sound economics, but also be told in no uncertain terms how they can help us keep America\u2019s promises to all of its people.<\/p>\n

Stephan Helgesen is a retired foreign-service officer who lived and worked in 24 countries. He was a small-business owner on three separate occasions. He is now the honorary consul for Germany in New Mexico and owner of Second Opinion Marketing, an Albuquerque export consultancy. He can be reached at\u00a0helgesen@2ndopinionmarketing.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We must not only demand that the economic recovery plans presented to us in the coming months are based on sound economics, but also be told in no uncertain terms how they can help us keep America\u2019s promises to all of its people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1672,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[156,118,116],"class_list":["post-33475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-2012-election","tag-economy","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1672"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}