Around the blogs: Is econ. a discipline?, Tim Pawlenty is an idiot, and the bystander effect

First, check out this blog post by UC Berkeley economist J. Bradford Delong about the Chicago School of Economics.  Neoclassical / "Chicago School" economists believe that the economy is in a long-term equilibrium, with any unemployment simply the result of a shock that hasn't been adjusted to.  No government action is required to manage the economy.  Keynesian economists believe that as people's spending habits change, the economy will have natural peaks and valleys, and that government action is needed to help the economy out of recessions.

You might think that the The Great Depression and the current recession alone would be enough to prove the Chicago School wrong, and they would have long faded into the background.  In a sane world, they would have!  But as the book Zombie Economics details, some ideas just won't die...

Next, go on over to my favorite columnist Paul Krugman's post here.  Tim Pawlenty, former MN governor, is running for president and decided recently that he'd talk some shit about monetary policy.  Paul Krugman takes him to task - here's the money quote:

Now, it’s perfectly clear, even from that small bit, that Pawlenty has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about

Love it.

Finally, click here for a sweet video about the bystander effect over on the Nudge blog (expanded from the book Nudge, which is a great read).  The bystander effect basically states that no one offers help during an emergency when lots of other people are present.  Interesting that it could also apply to things other than emergency help, such as picking up litter.  By the way, if they did that experiment in my neighborhood, all those people might have to wait a couple decades for their trash to get picked up...