Comments on: Not at all detestable in any way

By: Ols Rockin' Dave

Ols Rockin' Dave — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 03:34:37 +0000

“To them, and to everyone who heard my remarks at the conference or has read them since, I deeply and unreservedly apologize.”
I give him points for that. The words “anyone who might have been offended” have been left at the curb and there is an actual, even if half the problem was to misrepresent him, recognition that offensive and wrong is an affront to everyone, not just to those hypersensitive hothouse flowers who aren’t tough enough to shrug off an insult that “really doesn’t represent what I really believe”.

By: snarly

snarly — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:30:32 +0000

I tried to work in a Highlander/romance novel reference, since Ferguson’s alpha-male charisma is so part of his schtick, but Ferguson is from Glasgow. Alas for JOKES.

By: snarly

snarly — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:29:10 +0000

In reply to Martin Kelly. EXCELLENT point about the incompleteness of the quotation! Context is everything.

By: sbpoet

sbpoet — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:22:36 +0000

Enjoyed the comment stream as much as the post.

By: Patrick Di Justo

Patrick Di Justo — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:16:27 +0000

Scotsmen have entirely too much influence on our culture. Sean Connery, Ewan McGregor, The Fergusons (Niall and Craig). Something must be done!

By: Martin Kelly

Martin Kelly — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:16:02 +0000

The other problem with his presentation is he’s wrong right out of the gate.

The Keynes piece he isn’t, apparently, smart enough to understand is, in full,

” this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is long past the ocean is flat again.”

His point, here, is that economic models that only tell you where you end up are useless, and what is in fact important is the day to day utility of an economic model.

Nothing like how Ferguson intends the quote to be understood, in setting up his straw man. It’s almost the opposite of the position Ferguson attributes to him,.

So we’re left with two possibilities: Ferguson is a fucking idiot, or Ferguson is a fucking dishonest piece of shit. Neither of these possibilities, and they’re the only two, are incompatible with his position as a Harvard professor of economics. The more I read of his stuff, in fact, the more I think they’re actually pre-requisites.

By: tanita

tanita — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:53:21 +0000

“But I should not have suggested – in an off-the-cuff response that was not part of my presentation – that Keynes was indifferent to the long run because he had no children, nor that he had no children because he was gay. This was doubly stupid. First, it is obvious that people who do not have children also care about future generations. Second, I had forgotten that Keynes’s wife Lydia miscarried.”

Translation: Oh, wait. Never mind about that effete stuff. Keynes plowed his manly field once. Lydia just dropped the ball. Keynes is now perfectly manly. My bad.

“I detest all prejudice.” Uh, yeah. That.

By: Amy K

Amy K — Mon, 06 May 2013 07:19:07 +0000

Well but nobody got offended that he misrepresented Keynes. They got offended at the way he did so. If he had apologized for misrepresenting Keynes’ ideas, the response would have been “guh, miss the point much?!”

By: Joe Flower

Joe Flower — Mon, 06 May 2013 04:09:04 +0000

*reads entire post to wife with dramatic, not to say flamboyant, emphases, intonations, and gestures*

By: jnfr

jnfr — Mon, 06 May 2013 03:17:32 +0000

If I wanted to have babies, snarly, they would have to be yours.