Rebuilding a Moral Economics: Addressing Professional Dysfunction and Integrating History

This podcast episode delves into the critical need to rebuild a moral economics, drawing parallels between Adam Smith's era of societal transformation and the present challenges posed by globalization and technological change. It highlights a perceived "void" in public discourse where expertise is discarded, leading to widespread frustration. The central argument is that the economics profession itself must undergo a transformation, moving beyond a "false innocence" to address its own structural dysfunctions and re-engage with ethical considerations.

The discussion distinguishes between the historical rise of a "scientific technocracy" following the separation of church and state, which aimed for amoral objectivity, and the current imperative to integrate moral and historical dimensions back into economic thought. A key critique is leveled at the professional structures within academia—such as research support, tenure processes, and publication requirements—which are seen as potentially thwarting talented individuals from addressing pressing global challenges, thereby leading to economic dysfunction.

The conference outlined in the episode aims to be constructive, focusing on defining what "good economics" looks like for the future. This involves a deliberate effort to integrate the history of economic ideas and economic history into contemporary economic analysis and methodology. The involvement of several Nobel laureates in this endeavor underscores the gravity and importance of reforming the context in which economists operate and conduct their research.

Ultimately, the episode calls for a fundamental reform of the economics profession, emphasizing the "emancipation of belief" and the "subversion of conventional wisdom" as crucial steps. It suggests that by embracing a more holistic, historically informed, and ethically grounded approach, economics can reclaim its relevance and effectively contribute to solving complex societal problems, moving beyond its current state of perceived disregard and public distrust.

Smith was looking forward in the wealth of nations but he emerged from a time when the arbiter of good and evil and right and wrong had been the church and the church had unfortunately combined with what you might call powerful earthly interest of the landed aristocracy and discredited itself.

we've had a very very powerful set of structural transformations start in motion with globalization powerful advances in technical change and perhaps relative to an earlier time and acceleration of the propensity to capture government

people are very frustrated with experts they've actually discarded expertise and I believe we're living in a void a void that has to be filled

Robert Bellah said that we have to get over [the] false innocence

our challenge the thing that we have influence over is how the economics profession behaves

how they're thwarted from doing so and leaves the economics profession in all likelihood in disregard and encourages very talented young people who are inspired by the challenge to go elsewhere for their professional life and career

what does economics going forward what does good economics look like what issues what methods how do we integrate the history of economic ideas and economic history into it

You may write down me down in history with your bitter twisted lies you may tread me in the very dirt but still like dust I rise

John Kenneth Galbraith once argued that salvation lies in the subversion of conventional wisdom by the gradual encroachment of disquieting thought the emancipation of belief is the most formal tasks of reform the one on which all else depends