Martha Starr, a professor at my soon-to-be-home of American University argues that economists need an ethical code.
People were raising a lot of concerns about this sort of thing when the Inside Job documentary came out (which is referenced in the link above). Bob Murphy picked it up, agreeing with Martha Starr about these problems and pointing to specific cases with Mishkin and Hubbard. I'm not going to recount my views on those two cases - but you can look at my comments in the linked posts of Bob's.
I lean a little more towards the market view described in the article, and against Starr and Murphy. To a large extent this might be based on my experiences, and of course my reaction is going to depend on exactly what "ethical code" is proposed. I doubt I'd be opposed to any kind of ethical code Starr or Murphy have in mind, I probably just don't think it's as necessary as they might. What do you all think?
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
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What economists need (just like pundits generally) is something of a rating agency or a body which looks at their public pronouncements about current policy. There are lots of models that exist in other areas of life that this sort of body could draw from.
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