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slowly but surely (now that the damage has been done...) even academia is heeding the
evidence _documented_ by INSIDE JOB?
too bad the political class has utterly failed to even _acknowledge_ what this movie brought to light
(and just fergit about the lamestream media) good thing we got matt taibi/rolling stone to keep reminding them!
hilarious!
evidence _documented_ by INSIDE JOB?
too bad the political class has utterly failed to even _acknowledge_ what this movie brought to light
(and just fergit about the lamestream media) good thing we got matt taibi/rolling stone to keep reminding them!
hilarious!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...849864232.html
Stung by 'Inside Job,' Economists Pen a Code of Ethics
By JUSTIN LAHART
Academic economists are moving closer to adopting a code of ethics in response to criticism that ethical lapses in the profession helped precipitate the 2008 financial crisis.
Many economists work with companies, financial firms, governments and other organizations that are eager to tap their expertise. That has opened them up to charges that the often lucrative consulting fees they were receiving first blinded them to the risks to the economy heading into the financial crisis and then steered them toward offering policy responses that benefited their clients. But because the potential conflicts of interest weren't generally known, government officials, the news media and the public took their assessments at face value.
The American Economic Association, the largest professional society for economists, decided last January to consider creating ethical guidelines for its membership. That is something that other academic associations, such as the American Sociological Association, have already done, but that the AEA for years resisted.
The group's change of heart was partly motivated by the public attention the documentary "Inside Job"—winner last February of an Academy Award—drew to the consulting relationships of several influential economists. Among them: Harvard University's Martin Feldstein, who served on the board of American International Group Inc. in 2008, when the government saved it from the brink of collapse, and Columbia Business School's Frederic Mishkin, a former Federal Reserve governor, who in a 2006 report sponsored by the Iceland Chamber of Commerce painted a bright picture of that remote country's economy, two years before it collapsed.
Mr. Mishkin said he welcomed the move toward new guidelines. "Having better standards for the economics profession is good for the public, and it's good for the profession," he says. Mr. Feldstein, in an email, declined to comment.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Robert Solow, a Nobel laureate, is leading a five-member ad hoc panel charged with drawing up the guidelines. He expects to soon deliver its recommendations so the association's executive committee can consider them when it meets in January in Chicago.
The group is focusing on providing disclosure guidelines to economists when they face conflicts of interest, Mr. Solow said.
Some of the groundwork has already been laid by the 1,200-member National Bureau of Economic Research. In July, it stipulated that economists disclose research-funding sources for publications it sponsors and working papers posted on its website. Economists must also disclose "relevant and material financial relationships."
"I think the NBER disclosure policy is excellent," said Gerald Epstein, an economist at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst who has publicly criticized economists for not disclosing conflicts of interest. "They give clear guidelines to people who are publishing papers and they seem to be taking them seriously."
Mr. Epstein said he hoped the AEA's disclosure policy takes the further step of recommending that economists disclose potential conflicts when making speeches and writing op-eds.
The AEA has no authority to police economists, so any disclosure policy it formulates will effectively only apply to papers in the seven journals it publishes. But other journals will probably use the AEA's disclosure guidelines to formulate their own. And many economics departments would likely establish rules that adhere to the AEA guidelines.
Anil Kashyap, at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, is one of a number of economists who have opted to disclose, on their websites, all of the organizations for which they have done paid work. Most of Mr. Kashyap's consulting relationships have been with government entities, like the Federal Reserve, but he also has given paid speeches to companies such as State Farm Insurance.
"It seemed to me it was simpler to just show everybody what you do," he said.
Mr. Epstein thinks universities should require disclosure statements like Mr. Kashyap's, something that Columbia Business School started to do this year.
The school's dean, economist Glenn Hubbard, was criticized in "Inside Job" for his relationships with companies such as insurance provider MetLife Inc., whose board he sits on. He said he had disclosed those relationships on his résumé, and that he believed they gave him valuable insight into how business works.
"I consider for myself corporate board service to be very important," he said. "I'm not defensive about it; I'm proud of it."
University of Denver economist George DeMartino, who published a book on the need for a code of ethics for economists, said the profession should weigh other ethical issues, such as whether it is right to advise oppressive governments. Mr. Solow said those were issues that the AEA's ethics committee was unlikely to broach.
"I doubt this committee wants to go there," he said. "One man's despot is another man's national hero."
- OCTOBER 12, 2011
Stung by 'Inside Job,' Economists Pen a Code of Ethics
By JUSTIN LAHART
Academic economists are moving closer to adopting a code of ethics in response to criticism that ethical lapses in the profession helped precipitate the 2008 financial crisis.
Many economists work with companies, financial firms, governments and other organizations that are eager to tap their expertise. That has opened them up to charges that the often lucrative consulting fees they were receiving first blinded them to the risks to the economy heading into the financial crisis and then steered them toward offering policy responses that benefited their clients. But because the potential conflicts of interest weren't generally known, government officials, the news media and the public took their assessments at face value.
The American Economic Association, the largest professional society for economists, decided last January to consider creating ethical guidelines for its membership. That is something that other academic associations, such as the American Sociological Association, have already done, but that the AEA for years resisted.
The group's change of heart was partly motivated by the public attention the documentary "Inside Job"—winner last February of an Academy Award—drew to the consulting relationships of several influential economists. Among them: Harvard University's Martin Feldstein, who served on the board of American International Group Inc. in 2008, when the government saved it from the brink of collapse, and Columbia Business School's Frederic Mishkin, a former Federal Reserve governor, who in a 2006 report sponsored by the Iceland Chamber of Commerce painted a bright picture of that remote country's economy, two years before it collapsed.
Mr. Mishkin said he welcomed the move toward new guidelines. "Having better standards for the economics profession is good for the public, and it's good for the profession," he says. Mr. Feldstein, in an email, declined to comment.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Robert Solow, a Nobel laureate, is leading a five-member ad hoc panel charged with drawing up the guidelines. He expects to soon deliver its recommendations so the association's executive committee can consider them when it meets in January in Chicago.
The group is focusing on providing disclosure guidelines to economists when they face conflicts of interest, Mr. Solow said.
Some of the groundwork has already been laid by the 1,200-member National Bureau of Economic Research. In July, it stipulated that economists disclose research-funding sources for publications it sponsors and working papers posted on its website. Economists must also disclose "relevant and material financial relationships."
"I think the NBER disclosure policy is excellent," said Gerald Epstein, an economist at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst who has publicly criticized economists for not disclosing conflicts of interest. "They give clear guidelines to people who are publishing papers and they seem to be taking them seriously."
Mr. Epstein said he hoped the AEA's disclosure policy takes the further step of recommending that economists disclose potential conflicts when making speeches and writing op-eds.
The AEA has no authority to police economists, so any disclosure policy it formulates will effectively only apply to papers in the seven journals it publishes. But other journals will probably use the AEA's disclosure guidelines to formulate their own. And many economics departments would likely establish rules that adhere to the AEA guidelines.
Anil Kashyap, at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, is one of a number of economists who have opted to disclose, on their websites, all of the organizations for which they have done paid work. Most of Mr. Kashyap's consulting relationships have been with government entities, like the Federal Reserve, but he also has given paid speeches to companies such as State Farm Insurance.
"It seemed to me it was simpler to just show everybody what you do," he said.
Mr. Epstein thinks universities should require disclosure statements like Mr. Kashyap's, something that Columbia Business School started to do this year.
The school's dean, economist Glenn Hubbard, was criticized in "Inside Job" for his relationships with companies such as insurance provider MetLife Inc., whose board he sits on. He said he had disclosed those relationships on his résumé, and that he believed they gave him valuable insight into how business works.
"I consider for myself corporate board service to be very important," he said. "I'm not defensive about it; I'm proud of it."
University of Denver economist George DeMartino, who published a book on the need for a code of ethics for economists, said the profession should weigh other ethical issues, such as whether it is right to advise oppressive governments. Mr. Solow said those were issues that the AEA's ethics committee was unlikely to broach.
"I doubt this committee wants to go there," he said. "One man's despot is another man's national hero."
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