Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Hot: Greg Mankiw Students Walk Out of His Class

More lack of clarity as to what modern day protetsers want, with hints of socialist thinking and lack of understanding as to how Mankiw serves the elite. The following letter was sent to Greg Mankiw by the organizers of today’s Economics 10 walkout.

Wednesday November 2, 2011
Dear Professor Mankiw—
Today, we are walking out of your class, Economics 10, in order to express our discontent with the bias inherent in this introductory economics course. We are deeply concerned about the way that this bias affects students, the University, and our greater society.
As Harvard undergraduates, we enrolled in Economics 10 hoping to gain a broad and introductory foundation of economic theory that would assist us in our various intellectual pursuits and diverse disciplines, which range from Economics, to Government, to Environmental Sciences and Public Policy, and beyond. Instead, we found a course that espouses a specific—and limited—view of economics that we believe perpetuates problematic and inefficient systems of economic inequality in our society today.
A legitimate academic study of economics must include a critical discussion of both the benefits and flaws of different economic simplifying models. As your class does not include primary sources and rarely features articles from academic journals, we have very little access to alternative approaches to economics. There is no justification for presenting Adam Smith’s economic theories as more fundamental or basic than, for example, Keynesian theory.
Care in presenting an unbiased perspective on economics is particularly important for an introductory course of 700 students that nominally provides a sound foundation for further study in economics. Many Harvard students do not have the ability to opt out of Economics 10. This class is required for Economics and Environmental Science and Public Policy concentrators, while Social Studies concentrators must take an introductory economics course—and the only other eligible class, Professor Steven Margolin’s class Critical Perspectives on Economics, is only offered every other year (and not this year). Many other students simply desire an analytic understanding of economics as part of a quality liberal arts education. Furthermore, Economics 10 makes it difficult for subsequent economics courses to teach effectively as it offers only one heavily skewed perspective rather than a solid grounding on which other courses can expand. Students should not be expected to avoid this class—or the whole discipline of economics—as a method of expressing discontent.
Harvard graduates play major roles in the financial institutions and in shaping public policy around the world. If Harvard fails to equip its students with a broad and critical understanding of economics, their actions are likely to harm the global financial system. The last five years of economic turmoil have been proof enough of this.
We are walking out today to join a Boston-wide march protesting the corporatization of higher education as part of the global Occupy movement. Since the biased nature of Economics 10 contributes to and symbolizes the increasing economic inequality in America, we are walking out of your class today both to protest your inadequate discussion of basic economic theory and to lend our support to a movement that is changing American discourse on economic injustice. Professor Mankiw, we ask that you take our concerns and our walk-out seriously.
Sincerely,
Concerned students of Economics 10

Note: Reports are conflicting as to how many students walked out of Mankiw's class.

Update: According to the Harvard Crimson, Mankiw basically admitted he was a mainstream tool of the elitists:

A small group of Harvard students and employees staged an “Occupy Speakout” at noon on Tuesday to express their solidarity with the “National Day of Action.”

The group also sought to raise awareness of events they have planned for today, including a walkout of the popular Economics 10 introductory course and a March in Boston later in the day.

“Mic Check! We are the 99 percent across the country!” the group chanted.

The seven Mic Check participants drew attention to several initiatives taking place today, calling on students to join a campus-wide walkout Wednesday. The organizers are planning two separate walkouts—a general walkout at 11:30 a.m. and a walkout from Ec 10 at 12:15 p.m.—before leading students to join a rally in Dewey Square against rising student debt.

“I urge all students to walk out of Ec 10, [because it] represents the ideology that brought about our current economic situation,” shouted organizer Gabriel H. Bayard ’15.

Rachel J. Sandalow-Ash ’15, who with Bayard is helping organize the Economics 10 walk-out, said she believes the class pushes a “strongly conservative neoliberal ideology.” She said, for example, that she thought lectures promoted conservative views against minimum wage.

“I think a more diverse viewpoint needs to be raised,” Sandalow-Ash said. “The problem is that in an introductory course, what the professor says is generally taken as fact,” she said....

EC 10 professor N. Gregory Mankiw said that Ec 10 is just “mainstream economics,” adding that his textbooks are used at “hundreds of other schools around the world,” including Princeton, Yale and Brown.

“The goal of economics is to help people evaluate the inevitable tradeoffs that public policy entails,” said Mankiw. “While I do not share the specific views of the Occupy Wall Street movement, I am delighted to see students engaged in thinking broadly about social and economic policy. I hope that Ec 10 can help contribute to [that] ongoing discussion

.”

(ViaTheAustroContrarianCapitalist)

22 comments:

  1. Schooling should continue until morale improves.

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  2. I would be willing to bet that not a single one of the students who walked out of that class would have done the same to Stephen Marglin. Believe me, I am no fan of Mankiw. Just sayin'.

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  3. In the style of Cato the elder, I'm sure they enrolled so they could walk out.

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  4. I have his textbook for my intro to econ class and would've walked out because it is so neoclassical its almost dogmatic. He doesn't even mention marginal utility until talking about john stuart mill. Not a mention of austrian economics (beyond a passing thought on hayek).

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  5. I wonder if they are insightful enough to understand that progressivism (the broader definition that includes most R's and D's)is the root of the corporatism? Try having a progressive government without corporatism and it'll fail from the start. So long as the government believes that it is its role to provide economic stability and endless safety nets for its citizens, it has no choice but to "sleep with" and coddle the providers of that stability. There is no way to avoid it!

    BTW, its funny to hear Harvard kids harp on equality. A Harvard degree is the best way to not be equal to your peers in the job market.

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  6. The worst thing that could happen to someone is to study economics at Harvard, Princeton or Yale.

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  7. I recall Mankiw had this stupid blog post some years ago about how it would be so wonderful if someone's money lost value after withdrawing it from an ATM. It is so amazing to me that academic Phd economists actually believe such nonsense.

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  8. Eco 10?? How many classes do they have to take before getting to Eco 101? No wonder it costs so much to get a Harvard degree.

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  9. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

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  10. Laughable posturing bullshit. They lack the economic knowledge and reasoning skills to even understand WHY the economic views of Mankiw are so wrong. The fact that the one concrete example they give is expansion of the minimum wage is telling.

    I'd love Mankiw to allow Tom Woods or HHHoppe a chance to give a couple of lectures so they could at least begin to see the framework of the Wall St/FED/DC nexus, and the corrosive and poisonous effect it has had on economics.

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  11. "Don't teach me bro'"

    Anon 5:05 is right. They should prove their egalitarian chops by walking out of Harvard and not coming back.

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  12. Murphy, mayhap instead of econ one-oh-one, it is rather a cool, hip shortening of the phrase. Econ one-oh, baby.

    I doubt it, but it's a thought. :)

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  13. But, then again, what do I know. I've never taken a single economics course in my life. Shoot, I dropped out of college after the first year.

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  14. A great way to protest student loan debt would be to walk out of class, then continue walking, right off the campus, never to return. But the Harry Browne approach would never fly with these types, who are all training for jobs in government, environmental sciences, and public policy.

    I would also argue that there is a PLENTY of reason to present Smith's theories as more fundamental or basic than Keynes'. And I would urge these kids to get away from the bipolar Smith/Keynes spectrum altogether!

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  15. ... his textbooks are used at “hundreds of other schools around the world,” ...

    Did he say "my textbooks"? As in, ones that he wrote? If so, I can understand his defensive attitude.

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  16. "As Harvard undergraduates, we enrolled in Economics 10 hoping to gain a broad and introductory foundation of economic theory that would assist us in our various intellectual pursuits and diverse disciplines, which range from Economics, to Government, to Environmental Sciences and Public Policy, and beyond."

    So the little lambs want something that will come in handy as they ease into their future roles as tax-eating, state-employed goons, eh? Here's a list of course suggestions:

    Home Invasion 101
    Introduction to Surveillance and Wiretapping
    Creative Statistics
    Gideon Gono: Misunderstood Genius
    Blood from a Stone: Playing with Tax Policy for Fun and Profit

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  17. I find it amusing that anyone at Harvard should perceive himself as part of the 99% of working class stiffs. Oh, kids these days!

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  18. Why spend tons of money going to Harvard to "learn" economics?

    The Mises Institute offers a torrent with 250 gigabytes of reading-, audio- and video material for free!

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  19. Harvard economics professors make big bucks from financial institutions for writing papers that favorably review them, and Harvard has no policy that requires disclosure of the payments. As any economics professor should know, this establishes an incentive that compromises the academic integrity of the department's publications. It's no surprise that this professor is defensive and does not "share the specific views of the Occupy Wall Street movement." He has too much money for hire to lose.

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  20. They are seeking an "introductory foundation of economic theory", so from this I assume they have only basic knowledge of economics (or even less then that). So then, how do they know this:

    "There is no justification for presenting Adam Smith’s economic theories as more fundamental or basic than, for example, Keynesian theory."

    Are they able to justify such statement?

    But if they think that they are right here, then they should also agree, from their point of view, that there is no justification for presenting Keynesian theory as more fundamental than, for example, Misesian theory.

    (soe)

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  21. “The goal of economics is to help people evaluate the inevitable tradeoffs that public policy entails,”

    Mankiw is as big an idiot as his students if he thinks this is what economics is about.

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  22. Somehow I think the last thing these kids would like to learn about is the Austrian school.

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