Ritholtz gets shrill.
Posted by armand at January 13, 2009 11:10 AM | TrackBack | Posted to EconomicsIts long overdue. From the efficient-market theories, to the concept of man as rational profit maximizers, much of the edifice that is was the Chicago school of economics is based on a foundation that is false, disproven or otherwise questionable.
I first encountered the Chicago theory in law school. The Chicagoists somehow read into law a market efficiency component that was never there. I recoiled against it - not because of the libertarianism, which I embraced. Rather, it seemed a backdoor way to circumvent democracy, and force into the legal system rules that were never debated, voted on, or agreed to by a representative government. I found the extremist legal theories of Judges like Richard Posner and Frank Easterbrook intellectually repulsive. They were undemocratic, anti-representative government. When I told a professor that the law and economics movement was an attempt at a political coup, he laughed and said, try to stop it ...
If there is one silver lining in the entire collapse, its that this group of intellectual charlatans have been revealed as utterly wanting.
If only the damn thing had died before I was endlessly subjected to learning about it in law school...
Posted by: ryan at January 13, 2009 12:07 PM | PERMALINKThe Efficient Market Hypothesis has been quietly regarded as inane for decades. I think it only lives on because Eugene Fama is such a fucking bully about it -- standing up and screaming at people during presentations at conferences, etc. I keep hearing his name at Nobel time, but my cat deserves a Nobel more than he does. Asshat.
Posted by: jacflash at January 13, 2009 04:05 PM | PERMALINK