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                                             July 9, 2018

The fun does not end with:

    GERALD_FRIEDMAN

That was an engaging tale of pundits and flacks
conveying the impression that the feasibility
and desirability of Bernie Sanders proposals
rested on the accuracy of an economic analysis
by Gerald Friedman.
   
One of the funner details is that the hot-shot     
economists who publicly announced the analysis was         
crap hadn't bothered to examine the analysis in any      
detail and presented very little in the way of an  
economic argument themselves.                      
                    
After this was pointed out, one of them did back-up
and publish an analysis, then it was written about at
the New York Times, and then Gerald Friedman
responded (in the economics literature, and on a
blog) and then there was some commentary on twitter...

At each stage, the volume of the message declines
as the venue shifts to less visible places...

In this exchange, the first move is in the academic press:

  Christina D. Romer & David H. Romer:
  "Senator Sanders's Proposed Policies And Economic Growth"
  February 25, 2016
  https://evaluationoffriedman.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/romer-and-romer-evaluation-of-friedman1.pdf

That get's used as the basis of a New York Times piece
by Justin Wolfers:

  "Uncovering the Bad Math (or Logic) of an Economic
  Analysis Embraced by Bernie Sanders", Feb. 26, 2016
  https://twitter.com/JustinWolfers/status/701938786289242113

Then we have a long piece by Gerald Friedman, which I found quoted
at this blog:

  "Gerald Friedman Responds to the Romers on the
  Sanders Plan: Different Models, Different Politics"
  March 8, 2016
  https://urpe.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/gerald-friedman-responds-to-the-romers-on-the-sanders-plan-different-models-different-politics/

After this, Justin Wolfers quipped on twitter:

  https://twitter.com/JustinWolfers/status/701938786289242113

  "I score this as a win for Gerald Friedman
  (@gfriedma) over Paul Krugman."


So, if you haven't completely zoned-out at this stage of the
exchange, take a moment to ponder the sheer chicanery involved
here, the sheer unmitigated sleaziness on display...

The casually interested see only this headline:

  "Uncovering the Bad Math (or Logic) of an Economic
  Analysis Embraced by Bernie Sanders"

This accuses the left of bad math, bad logic--    
and once again reinforces the lie that Bernie has "embraced" 
this analysis.
              
    The overall narrative:
              
    Bernie so impractical, Bernie out-of-touch with reality.
              
                                                         
If you're interested enough to read past the headline,         
you'll find an account by Justin Wolfers of a                  
conversation with Friedman which portrays Friedman      
as dithering and inconsistent-- a game you can play with       
nearly anyone I submit, unless they're particularly good       
at thinking on their feet and/or specifically trained in       
sticking to a fixed set of talking points.                     
                                                               
Justin Wolfers later effecively does a reversal               
and sides with Friedman...  but in an extremely
obscure forum.

Is there any need for the New York Times to issue
a retraction?  Well, why? They just went with the
information available at the time.  Follow-up
story?  Well you know there's more important
things relevant to shaping today's public opinion....


But hey, Friedman gets to correct the record himself!
In a footnote to a lengthy blog post:

      "Please note There is no 'bad math' as
      described by Justin Wolfers. Differences
      between my analysis and that of the Romers,
      or others favored by Wolfers, come from my
      use of a different economic model. "



   Krugman, by the way, was quick to claim the Romer piece for his side:

     [link]

   I haven't found any signs of Krugman revisiting
   this issue afterwards, let alone an apology.




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