being wrong is actually a virtue in the eyes of some people, as long as it’s the right kind of wrong

[phantom power]

That said, even pointing out the bubble got you heckled; I still treasure the sneering piece by John Hinderaker insisting that the only reason I thought there was a bubble was because I hated Bush. Well, who knew — Hinderaker is still out there, as I learn from Bonddad (via the still invaluable Mark Thoma).

But why is he still out there? In part because being wrong is actually a virtue in the eyes of some people, as long as it’s the right kind of wrong. And those people have money and power: I’d actually forgotten about this, but the Koch brothers tried to install Hinderaker on the board of Cato, which they viewed as insufficiently hackish.

Still, think tanks are one thing; this doesn’t happen in the world of scholarship. Oh, wait. Via Daniel Kuehn, we know now that the Kochs sought to control economics hiring at Florida State University. And you have to wonder how much this sort of thing goes on — usually, one suspects, more subtly and implicitly, without as clear a paper trail.

In the 1940s moneyed interests made an initially successful effort to block the teaching of Keynesian economics, although Samuelson somehow slipped through. If you don’t think that similar things can happen now, you’re naive — and the rich are richer and more powerful now than they were then.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/15/cosmic-cato-koch-convergence

[joeybee12]

1. Is he talking about Andrew Sullivan? nt

[CJCRANE]

2. They don't see it as being wrong, it's "creating reality".

You can never be wrong when you create your own reality.

You believe what you want to believe, even if it means rewriting history.