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March 13, 2005

Gregory Mankiw: Hero Of The Oppressed

Gregory Mankiw is one of America's most prominent conservative economists. He recently finished up a stint as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers for the Bush administration, and is now back full-time as the Allie S. Freed Professor of Economics at Harvard.

Mankiw just wrote an article for the New Republic about Social Security. This is the first sentence:

Harvard University is, by some measures, one of the most left-wing institutions on the face of the earth.

God, that's SO TRUE! Likewise, this website is one of the most anti-Jon Schwarz institutions on the face of the earth. This is completely obvious, so there's no need to think about it further.

Frankly, given this website's unremitting hostility toward me and my ideas, it's really a testament to me that I've come as far here as I have.

Posted at March 13, 2005 10:54 AM | TrackBack
Comments

I've developed something I'm going call "Schwarz' Law". Any article that starts out with something flatly contradicting reality, and that does not subsequently reveal a sense of humor, needn't be taken seriously or even read all the way through.

Posted by: Harry at March 13, 2005 11:32 AM

Well, there may not be a Schwarz's Law yet, but there is of course the Schwarz Inequality:

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SchwarzsInequality.html

And then of course there's the Schwarzchild Radius, which as we know measures how fat Jon was during elementary school.

Posted by: Ted at March 13, 2005 01:02 PM

"Schwarzians."

Hmmm. I'd watch that if I were you, Jon. It's awfully close to Straussians, and you know where they've led us . . .

Posted by: Dennis Perrin at March 13, 2005 02:04 PM

Ok, I got a nudder one:

Mankiwian:

a view of the nature of good and evil that, while expressed with utmost earnestness, nevertheless evokes in the listener images of Kiwis sluggin' it out, causing great tittering.

Posted by: Hugo at March 13, 2005 11:26 PM

I am invoking Schwarz's law and declining to read the rest of the article in question, but I do have to wonder, since Mankiw includes the qualifying phrase "by some measures," what "measures" he is referring to. Are we talking about imaginary numbers here? Does he mean the "measures" one might resort to in a through-the-looking glass Mirror Universe? Or does he mean, for example, the measures available to a person who thinks harvard is one of only two institutions on earth, the other one being Opus Dei? I think this is an important question.

Posted by: inkywretch at March 14, 2005 09:07 AM

Hugo,

It's a wonder that Harvard hasn't given away their massive endowment

Is it? I think this is just another example of the left's endless hypocrisy.

inkywretch,

If you refer to "Schwarz's law" more than this once, I may have to send you money.

Anyway, I too wondered about the phrase "by some measures." I believe it means the same yardstick that tells us Colin Powell is a Stalinist.

Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at March 14, 2005 09:27 AM