Economics is what economists do. –Jacob Viner T he trouble with Professor Viner’s delicate evasion is that economists no longer agree about what they do, or even whether it is all worth doing. Critics outside the profession long faulted economists for a host of sins: their deductive method, their formalism, their over-reliance on arcane algebra, […]
Features
Posted inEconomic Policy
Saving Disgrace? More on Savings
F red Block and Robert Heilbroner, in “The Myth of a Savings Shortage” (TAP, Spring 1992), want to persuade us that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, there is no scarcity of savings in the U.S. economy today. They say that the present national savings rate is as high as ever; that it plays no depressing […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
Race, Liberalism, Affirmative Action (III)
We continue the debate on the future of affirmative action in response to Paul Starr’s “Civil Reconstruction: What to Do Without Affirmative Action,” TAP, No.9. Winter 1992. D iscussion of the candidacies of Pat Buchanan and David Duke, even of the Los Angeles riots, have faded. But they should remain troubling. They are part of […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Healthy Compromise: Universal Coverage and Managed Competition Under a Cap
A promising strategy emerges to break the impasse.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
An Alliance at Risk: The Disability Movement and Health Care Reform
They should be on the same side.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Coalition or Collision? Medicare and Health Reform
Budget realities could divide old friends.
Posted inAmerica and the World
Continental Drift: NAFTA and Its Aftershocks
The trade problem is much bigger than the treaty.
