“On a stormy Tuesday I am welcomed to my new parish – and realise I have been looking for love in the wrong place”
Reading this article, I feel a great deal of sympathy and empathy with Rev. Giles Fraser. It reminds me of my own plight all those years ago, questioning the foundations of modern economics and the teachings at business schools. Like him, I was ridiculed and ostracised. Like him, I did not know who my friends or foes were anymore. Like him, I, too, remember, how most of my so-called friends and colleagues displayed "too many unconvincing smiles in the street who suddenly wouldn't break step to say hello". But, most joyously, similar to Rev. Fraser, I, too, have had moments of being "Surprised by Joy".
Today, I am most grateful for my new friends and colleagues. Today, I thank God for his blessings for what I do now. Today, I give thanks for seeing the light all those years ago. My only regret is that my so-called colleagues and friends, did not see what I, and some other economists, were seeing and saying. If they had, then maybe, the departments of economics, business schools and most of the economists, would not have been the subject of constant ridicule and the butt of so many jokes, as they are today, and perhaps they would not have been disowned by their students (see below). And perhaps we may have returned the "dismal" science to its former beauty and wisdom. Only if!
Kamran (http://gcgi.info/how-it-began)
Goodbye, St Paul's. Hello, St Mary's
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/may/04/goodbye-st-pauls-hello-st-marys/print
Students of economics revolting against their professor at Harvard
“There is a growing student protest movement against orthodox economics that could change the field as we know it.” On 2nd November 2011 at Harvard University, students of Prof. N. Gregory Mankiw walked out of his class.
“Mankiw is the former head of the Council of Economic Advisers for President George W. Bush and an advisor to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He is also the author of "Principles of Economics," the predominant textbook used in introductory economics classes worldwide. Not surprisingly, he has an extremely traditional, market-oriented view of the discipline.
The students who walked out of Mankiw's class explained their reasoning in an open letter printed in the Harvard Political Review. It began with this declaration: "Today, we are walking out of your class, Economics 10, in order to express our discontent with the bias inherent in this introductory economics course. We are deeply concerned about the way that this bias affects students, the University, and our greater society.
They went on to explain that instead of presenting a broad introduction to economics, Mankiw's teaching was narrowly focused, did not offer alternative approaches to orthodox economic models and ultimately was complicit in perpetuating systemic global inequality…
These students are frustrated by a field that they believe could provide so much to society but instead is mired in outmoded thinking. Today's economics is dominated by ideas, like the efficient market hypothesis, making such sweeping generalizations that they render human beings practically unrecognizable”…
Read more:
Not their father’s economics: Students seeking real-world answers are questioning long-held tenets
Economists--you say you want a revolution?
For a more comprehensive reading see:
Economics and Economists Engulfed By Crises: What Do We Tell the Students?
http://gcgi.info/news/91-economics-and-economists-engulfed-by-crises-what-do-we-tell-the-students
Small is Beautiful: The Wisdom of E.F. Schumacher
http://gcgi.info/news/128-small-is-beautiful-the-wisdom-of-ef-schumacher