Quoted almost in full from his March 11 column in The New York Times:
On the list of blind spots for the noneconomist left, I’d put the following views (with some partial rebuttals available through the links):
* Economic growth has almost as many negatives as positives.
* The demise of manufacturing is the economy’s main problem.
* Education is overrated.
* The economy is much more volatile than it used to be.
* Deregulation is bad. (And the repeal of Glass-Steagall caused the financial crisis.)
* International trade is bad.
* Overpopulation is a problem.
* Last year’s health reform bill was a sellout to the insurance companies. (Or alternatively, real health reform requires a “public option.”)
* Life is worse today than it used to be.
I’m not saying every one of these views is simply wrong. On trade, for example, liberals have been right about some things that economists were wrong about. But I do think the views above often end up missing something important.
Of course, you could come up with a blind-spot list for the right, too:
* Tax rates are the main determinant of economic growth.
* The rich will always figure out a way to get around tax increases.
* The United States has the world’s best health care across the board.
* The free market is the answer for health care.
* The free market is the answer for everything.
*Illegal immigrants are a major economic problem.
* Global warming is a matter of debate.
* Inequality isn’t a problem.
* Life is worse today than it used to be.
The difference, I think, is that conservative economists’ blind spots overlap more with general conservative blind spots than is the case for liberal economists and liberal blind spots. That’s not a value judgment so much as an observation: liberal economists tend to be more economically conservative than average liberals.
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