Comments on: Casey B. Mulligan Gives More Proof That Chicago School Freemarket Economics Is Nothing More Than Scientology For East Coast Rich Fucks

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:28:34 +0000

So Mr. Levine, in your little mind, are listless vaginas more important than freedom?

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:48:18 +0000

That study actually found that everyone over estimates their skill/knowledge when they are unskilled/ignorant. It also found that how unskilled/ignorant you are is proportional to how grossly wrong your estimation of your skill/knowledge is going to be. It’s why people think they know how to build a nuclear bomb after taking High School Physics. All humans think anything they don’t know must be both simple and easy.

By: az

az — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:46:39 +0000

Well these Chicago boys are at least more rational in their behaviors than what libertarian ‘economists’ preach. I mean, subconsciously or not, they know that capitalism is not economically sustainable, so they want to have the last piece of everything from Russia to Argentina to America to belong to them or the masters who listen to them and pamper them.

20 re:Marxism: you’re cute, can I take you out for dinner?

By: Fissile

Fissile — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:12:35 +0000

Yesterday, I was in Manhattan on some minor business. The amount of empty storefronts in midtown is truly astonishing. I was a boy during the recession of the mid-1970′s and I don’t recall midtown having any vacancies at all. It was the dodgy parts of the city that took it in the shorts back in the day.

The office vacancy rate in “wealthy” Northern New Jersey is currently hovering around 25%.

BTW, the Lubavitchers’ leader, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, never claimed, “that he was the second coming of the messiah..” Had he claimed that he came back, that would have made him and his followers Christians, and not Jews. Schneerson claimed that Jesus was a fake messiah, and that he(Jesus) is currently residing in hell where he’s being boiled in a vat full of shit and jizz. Schneerson claimed to be the one and only messiah — Jesus being just a lying drama queen.

On an additional note, Lubavitchers hate the Satmars(a competing Hasidic sect) like poison, and the Satmars send the hate right on back. One of the funniest things you see in this life is a street fight between Lubavitchers and Satmars. Not so much, punching, stabbing or shooting, but a lot of insults and spitting. Be sure to bring your umbrella.

By: machete

machete — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:03:41 +0000

The Chicago schools concepts are misinterpreted. There concepts saved me a fortune. 1: They claim that you cannot make excess profit in stocks. Well the stock market has collapsed and I never invested in them. Thanks Chicago School. 2: They claim that you can make more profit by owning your home versus renting. Home values have collapsed. I never bought and I rent an apartment. Thanks Chicago School! The Chicago School concepts advise the government not to give 25 trillion $’s to the banks. Obama didnt listen and he gave 25 trillion $’s to the banks. Thats Marxism.

By: dudeman

dudeman — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:12:20 +0000

YOu just have a different definition of a crash. The CRE market represents only about 10 percent to 15 percent of bank assets. It’s nowhere near the percentage of CDO’s and MBO’s etc. You can always show examples of crumbling infrastructure. But this is nowhere near a nation-toppling crisis. Yes we are going to have quite a few unoccuppied and under occupied buildings, but the sky is not falling on this one. It may be a crisis to some people, but it is not a generalized crisis. In fact for small businesses and professionals the cheaper rent that usually occurs in this part of the real estate cycle is a real boost.

By: Tommy Jefferson

Tommy Jefferson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:21:11 +0000

Chicago School = Freemarket Economics

I don’t understand. Does By Yasha Levine actuality believe this, or is it part of the joke?

By: captain america

captain america — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:02:39 +0000

i skipped all the stats proving that the commercial real estate market is in trouble. like you say, i’m a layman, and i can tell that by driving around and checking out my surroundings.

By: Pablito

Pablito — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:46:23 +0000

If you’re going to damn the Chicago school for bad predictions, you should probably praise the Austrians.

By: adolphhitler

adolphhitler — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:51:49 +0000

@11..i think you have nailed it. the big money conglomerates have become anti nationalistic. they yearn for a world without borders where they can transfer their capital so that it brings its greatest return without ever considering how their actions may affect the population of a given nation ( say the u.s.). if their actions impoverish the american middle class they really dont care so long as the corp. balance sheet shows a profit.
however, they desperately need a sheriff to protect them and their assets while they fuck every one but themselves…that is where the american armed forces come in. they use our army to futher the governments policy of redistributing american wealth to the rest of the world. we are funding our own military to fuck us so that the oligarchs turn us into a third world state.

By: jazzage

jazzage — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:53:10 +0000

You should not insult Howler monkeys by comparing them to U of C economists. What have they done to you? I used to believe in guillotines to solve our current economic woes but I have decided that the middle ages had it right – burn them at the stake!

By: subgenius

subgenius — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:47:48 +0000

Taibbi is on the same page…

http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2009/11/04/goldman-one-ups-gordon-gekko-says-jesus-embraced-greed/

By: Metallica

Metallica — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:34:19 +0000

It should be obvious that economists are paid propagandists whose job is to make economics incomprehensible so the little guy won’t realize he is being robbed. There’s no point trying to weigh out how wrong they are, much like there was no point trying to fact-check communist posters.

By: אברהם

אברהם — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:41:03 +0000

@Jon Ezell

Every try explaining to a free marketeer that capital can’t function without a sovereign authority to safeguard it? …Shit. It’s not even worth the time.

By: S. A.

S. A. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:15:38 +0000

Despite being published in an academic journal (usually home to the most boring writing on god’s green earth), “Unskilled and Unaware of It” is remarkably interesting and easy to read. More papers should start their introductions with dumb criminal stories.

By: Jon Ezell

Jon Ezell — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:32:53 +0000

I remember getting into a long argument with an acquaintance who was Wall Streeter and Math Whiz about Milton Friedman and Pinochet. He eventually came to say things like: More people would’ve starved under Allende than were killed or tortured by Pinochet, the entire modern economy would collapse without people with 160 IQs running Wall Street, and that, because I am a socialist, I was guilty of having “religious convictions” in place of rational analysis.
This was, of course, a few months before the beginning of the crash. I haven’t talked to him since, but I’m sure he just blamed everything on the government for biting the invisible hand.

Also, good call on the Dunning-Kruger effect! Before I dropped out of business school I saw more than enough to go around. You just can’t lose with some people!

By: DarthFurious

DarthFurious — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:32:28 +0000

“Unskilled and Unaware of It” – my god (the real one, not the fake all you fools worship) that explains everyone in my office…

On a more serious note, I read a study done in australia on “positive thinking,” where they show that those who “think positively” have fucked critical reasoning and awareness skills and basically believe any goddam thing they’re told. Surprise surprise surprise, the idea of “the power of positive thinking” has become a virtual religious faith here in the states, even going so far as to infiltrate the medical community, who routinely spout nonsense about “have faith” and “stay positive” to people like terminal cancer patients, even though study after study has clearly shown that “staying positive” has no effect whatsoever on mortality outcomes.
Just another example of the rot at the core of this fading republic.

By: twohandsclapping

twohandsclapping — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:08:05 +0000

brilliant graphic: “Howler Monkey to Mulligan” loved it, shared it.

bravo

By: thomzas

thomzas — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:29:51 +0000

Can we have some graphs to illustrate the wrongness of various economists predictions?

It would be like an actor’s career chart – only funnier because billions of dollars are at stake.

By: subgenius

subgenius — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:06:43 +0000

Fucking epic. Kudos