Economists as Apologists

[Passages]

Too much of the profession operates as the ideological department of predatory capitalism.

by Robert Kuttner September 24, 2024

One of the great achievements of the Biden administration has been to bring antitrust enforcement back from near-death, after four decades during which most economists and law professors who are supposedly expert in the field taught that antitrust was unnecessary and even perverse. During this period, with little or no antitrust enforcement, major industries became more highly concentrated and more abusive to both consumers and potential competitors. Market power was real, even if the experts denied it.

Three of the leaders in the Biden effort to smoke out and prosecute abusive economic concentration are Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission; Rohit Chopra, who leads the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; and Jonathan Kanter, head of the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department. All of them have had a big backstage assist from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

A couple of weeks ago, Assistant AG Kanter gave a landmark speech in which he pointed to the corrupted and corrupting effects on economic concentration of supposed economic experts, who are rewarded handsomely by their corporate clients for testifying against antitrust enforcement. The law and economics specialty offers a splendid career dwelling in the safe, orthodox precincts of an economics department or law school and then making a bundle on the side as a consultant. He said, in part:

SNIP Story three—a Court of Appeals cited an economic study written by a professor paid by the defendants in support of the defendants’ litigation position. But the paper had no disclosure and so the court had no way to know it was citing advocacy, not merely academic expertise. That appellate decision has become binding precedent in some courts that impacts scores of unrelated cases.
https://prospect.org/economy/2024-09-24-economists-as-apologists/

Touché

[Tweedy]

1. Wingnut welfare is everywhere

The best way to cut way back on such wingnut welfare is to tax the extraordinarily rich fairly. This will reduce income inequality.

So many of our very wealthy got there, in part, on the back of government subsidies.

[drmeow]

2. This is often true

of all "expert witnesses" not to mention pharmaceutical research. Paying for science it f**ked up and f**king us up.