I am Peter Dorman, an economist and long-time political obsessive, not affiliated with any school, camp or fire ring. I teach at the Evergreen State College, known for its extraordinarily demanding brand of wanton indulgence. I do a little of this and that academically, never wanting to specialize to the point of
Bloggers seem to be pronouncing themselves on free trade and liberty, so for my part I will say I have theoretical and political issues with the justification for unregulated trade, and I would like to reduce the role that hierarchy and authority (institutional not moral) plays in our world. What really irritates me is nationalism, the utopia of ages past that has now attained a gruesome hegemony.
I will mostly post on economics-related matters, since I figure the web is overrun with everything else, and because I think there is mostly a big hole where serious economic thinking ought to be in the discourse of the left.
5 comments:
Hi, Peter, and welcome.
Heck, I don't ever remember you dressing like anybody else!
Hi Prof Dorman, commenting from up the road in Everett.
I am really looking forward to some serious discussion from the left liberal perspective. My particular approach is from the New Deal and Democratic Pragmatism, which is to say that being accused of being a "Tax and Spend Liberal" doesn't exactly sting. If we can in fact reach a better pragmatic greatest good solution by raising taxes, why as a democratic society shouldn't we exercise our majority rights?
And the response from the Economic Right is kind of scary, rather than make a principled argument from liberty or even an attempt to show that their program does in fact return an equitable result, they tend to argue that opponents are simply ignorant and as such shouldn't even have a voice in the discussion.
For the prime example of this we have Chris Hayes review of Caplan Who's afraid of Democracy
Well good luck taking my vote away.
In saying goodbye at MaxSpeak I commented that while Max was irreplaceable that MaxSpeak not only could be replaced but had to be. Well things are shaping up well at EconoSpeak and with your help we may be on our way, or given the current lineup close to being there already.
So welcome indeed.
pd
define left
as you seem to place yourself on that wing at least
as one of its unorganized
anti hierarchy feathers
i hope your cannon
ain't loaded with
rad -libertarian-market-self organizing blah blah blah
firing that type of grape shot
is as blog common
as rabbit shit in an
unfenced lettuce patch
paine
Peter,
Of course I forgot. You are one of the folks like michael perelman who got quoted in the "hip heterodoxy" article. So, even if you do not dress like others, how you do so is clearly hip... :-).
Nice to meet you Peter Dorman (Doorman?).
[As you may eventually see I can be boringly repetitive at times.]
I too, have written on occupational safety and health, benefit-cost analysis, trade theory, international political economy, child labor, unemployment insurance, climate change, the precautionary principle, hierarchy and authority (institutional, gruesome hegemony and other stuff.
The difference being that I get to do it whenever I feel like it (I'm a great follower of Sandwichman's philosophy).
Since Barkley thinks your 'hip' I look forward to finally having the meaning of that word revealed to me ;-)
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