Word: economisters
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Scientists might look askance at the arrival of Lawrence H. Summers--an economist--as Harvard's 27th president. But University officials and those who have known Summers in government say that he understands the importance of investing in research--and has a long record of making such investment a top priority...
Because he is an economist, Summers knows that science makes money. He knows that science gets press coverage. For that matter, any university president knows that science and the technology it produces are formidable economic engines that have the potential to make money. But big science requires big money and huge organizations--two things that Harvard has in abundance...
...will it? "Airbus receives success-dependent, low-interest loans from European governments," says Dorothy Robyn, an economist who worked in the Clinton Administration. "Essentially that means Airbus has no bottom line." Britain, Germany, Spain and France will lend Airbus a third of the development costs at close to market rates. The loans don't have to be repaid if the project fails. That kind of cushion, critics charge, guarantees the A380 a soft landing. Boeing gets indirect handouts through its lucrative U.S. defense contracts. Last March, for example, the Air Force floated a plan to encourage private carriers...
...Soto, 59, an economist, first cited the potency of shadow economies in his seminal 1989 book, The Other Path. His new work argues that most market-oriented reforms have failed to help the poor because clubby oligarchs and red tape have shut them out. In Peru it takes a year or more to legally start a business--and it costs, in government fees, 31 times the minimum monthly wage. To legally own a home in the Philippines, De Soto says, requires a wait of as long as 25 years and 168 often venal bureaucratic steps. As a result, the Third...
Finally, when it comes to making predictions of an impending recession, private economists either have no such skills or they just lack the nerve to issue dire warnings. Being the bearer of bad news can be professionally risky, since optimism sells better than pessimism. Government forecasters are also shy about raising red flags on the economy because of the political ramifications. Politicians generally dismiss talk of an economic downturn, preferring instead to highlight prosperity--at least if they want to get re-elected. Asks economist Prakash Loungani at the International Monetary Fund: "How good are these forecasters at predicting...