Paul Samuelson dead

[SapereAude]

Suprised there was no mention of it on this forum.

So, he finally died.

Oh why, oh why couldn't he have taken his ideas with him?

[softwareNerd]

Another example of how an intellectual can do so much harm, this time via a popular textbook. I've read that there was a time when Jean Baptiste Say's book was a standard text in American schools! That might be an example of how an intellectual can do good.

I remember picking up a Samuelson text book in high-school (decades ago) and the inner cover had a two-page graph showing the GDP of the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., and projected the latter would soon beat the former. I didn't know enough at the time, and the graph actually saddened me. Only later did I realize that a graph like that constituted gross incompetence. (Aside: There was a time in the 1930s when many U.S. intellectuals thought the Russians were about to beat the U.S., in terms of per capita income. However, anyone who still believed that in the 1970s/80s was not qualified to be an economist.)

It is fitting that Samuelson was given the Nobel prize of shame.

Edited December 14, 2009 by softwareNerd

[SapereAude]

Another example of how an intellectual can do so much harm, this time via a popular textbook. I've read that there was a time when Jean Baptiste Say's book was a standard text in American schools! That might be an example of how an intellectual can do good.

I remember picking up a Samuelson text book in high-school (decades ago) and the inner cover had a two-page graph showing the GDP of the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., and projected the latter would soon beat the former. I didn't know enough at the time, and the graph actually saddened me. Only later did I realize that a graph like that constituted gross incompetence. (Aside: There was a time in the 1930s when many U.S. intellectuals thought the Russians were about to beat the U.S., in terms of per capita income. However, anyone who still believed that in the 1970s/80s was not qualified to be an economist.)

It is fitting that Samuelson was given the Nobel prize of shame.

The man was definitely an evil worthy of an Atlas Shrugged villian.

I do not recall the exact quote but it was on the lines of "I don't care who writes a nation's laws or crafts its advanced treatises as long as I can write its economic textbooks."

He is in large part responsible for the poisoning of the nation's young minds for generations.

[Capitalism Forever]

Oh why, oh why couldn't he have taken his ideas with him?

Because he had none. His textbook was pretty much just a mishmash of various economic theories originated by other thinkers--unfortunately, with 50% or more being from Keynes.