Madam, – It is interesting and illuminating to note the way in which your columnist Sarah Carey (July 1st) characterises Ireland’s two main economics blogs, progressive-economy@Tasc and The Irish Economy.
The former is described as a blog of “progressive” economists writing from a “left wing perspective” while the latter is described as a group blog written by “academic economists where the financial crisis is analysed using classical economic theory”.
In the interests of accuracy, it should be noted that the adjectives “progressive” and “academic” are not mutually exclusive.
The Tasc blog, www.progressive-economy.ie, is written primarily by members of the Tasc Economists Network, most of whom are academics eminent in their own economic fields — as is apparent from the list of contributors in the sidebar. Neither does writing from a left-wing or progressive perspective preclude the use of academic training in the discipline of economics.
Recently, TASC had the honour of hosting Professor James K. Galbraith when he delivered the TASC annual lecture. Galbraith has argued forcefully that Keynesian economics offer a solution while monetarist policies will deepen the recession.
Towards the end of 2008, policy makers around the world (albeit not in Ireland) began acting in line with Galbraith’s recommendations, in what the Financial Times has termed “a stunning reversal of the orthodoxy of the past several decades”.
Orthodoxy is unlikely to advance our economic recovery. On the contrary, orthodoxy is informing what may well prove to be the most deflationary fiscal stance since the 1950s. – Yours, etc,