My Cornell colleague Bob Hockett has written a scorchingly satirical essay about the Republican mental malady that’s led them to oppose economic stimulus in the name of fiscal probity.
I liked his title so much that I’ve commissioned my sons (who are two thirds of the rock band The Nepotist) to write a song with the same name. Â Lyrics suggestions welcome!
Author: Robert Frank
Robert H. Frank is the Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management and Professor of Economics at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management and the co-director of the Paduano Seminar in business ethics at NYU’s Stern School of Business. His “Economic View†column appears monthly in The New York Times. He is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos. He received his B.S. in mathematics from Georgia Tech, then taught math and science for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Nepal. He holds an M.A. in statistics and a Ph.D. in economics, both from the University of California at Berkeley. His papers have appeared in the American Economic Review, Econometrica, Journal of Political Economy, and other leading professional journals.
His books, which include Choosing the Right Pond, Passions Within Reason, Microeconomics and Behavior, Principles of Economics (with Ben Bernanke), Luxury Fever, What Price the Moral High Ground?, Falling Behind, The Economic Naturalist, and The Darwin Economy, have been translated into 22 languages. The Winner-Take-All Society, co-authored with Philip Cook, received a Critic's Choice Award, was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times, and was included in Business Week's list of the ten best books of 1995. He is a co-recipient of the 2004 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. He was awarded the Johnson School’s Stephen Russell Distinguished teaching award in 2004, 2010, and 2012, and its Apple Distinguished Teaching Award in 2005.
View all posts by Robert Frank
Invisible bond vigilantes
follow wherever I go,
they hide under the stairs,
won’t stop ringing my phone.
Include the word “truthiness.”
“Truthiness” rhymes with “starve I guess.”
We need to clone that economist.
And I like the bowtie. So contrarian. Bet it keeps him out of jury duty.
Thank you so much for that link, so well done a pleasure to read.
Title must be DAD for Dad
(or DAD on arrival ?).
Warn them that, while it is tempting to test limits, the lyrics will survive forever on the internet. So if they ever want to work for a Presidential administration, they should just forget they ever heard of Alan Simpson. He can talk about the enema man, but they better act their ages.
I don’t know if they want to focus on fiscal, but with bridges over troubled water laying themselves down and renewed enthusiasm for the gold standard, they can salute Simon, Garfunkle and Bryant with
“Sail on Silver Lake. Your time has come .. to shine”
http://www.micheloud.com/FXM/MH/crime/election.htm
Never mind. That’s too obscure even for me and I hate conflating fiscal and monetary policy.