Academic Economists to Consider Ethics Code

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — When the Stanford business professor Darrell Duffie co-wrote a book on how to overhaul Wall Street regulations, he did not mention that he sits on the board of Moody’s, the credit rating agency.

As a commentator on the economy, Laura D’Andrea Tyson, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton who teaches in the business school at the University of California, Berkeley, does not usually say that she is a director of Morgan Stanley.

And the faculty Web page of Richard H. Clarida, a Columbia professor who was a Treasury official under President George W. Bush, omits that he is an executive vice president at Pimco, the giant bond fund manager.

Academic economists, particularly those active in policy debates in Washington and Wall Street, are facing greater scrutiny of their outside activities these days. Faced with a run of criticism, including a popular movie, leaders of the American Economic Association, the world’s largest professional society for economists, founded in 1885, are considering a step that most other professions took a long time ago — adopting a code of ethical standards.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/business/economy/31economists.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

[valerief]

1. Bwahahahahaha!!!!

:rofl:

[tclambert]

2. I thought economists assumed ethics only consists of seeking personal profit.

All the other stuff we laypeople think of as ethics doesn't actually exist in the pure economics world. They are just illusions produced as people try to get over on one another. Think about those salespeople who try to make you believe they really care about your future happiness as they push you to buy the unnecessary extended warranty. And, of course, economists' mothers only pretended to like them.

[freshwest]

5. ROTFLMAO! Yes, I'm evil. But I totally agree with you.

Especially this part of what you wrote:

And, of course, economists' mothers only pretended to like them.'

[bemildred]

3. Trust me.

[freshwest]

6. Oh, yeah, baby, it's for your own good!

[DCKit]

4. "...are facing greater scrutiny of their outside activities these days."

On DU and in "Mother Jones" and "The Nation" maybe.

[freshwest]

7. Right! On lamestream media, they'll still be feted as heroes for not eating babies.

Except we can't prove that they don't.