I don’t think he’s a racist I would say he’s just not very smart at PR
NYT on Uhlig: Economics, Dominated by White Men, Is Roiled by Black Lives Matter
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As some people know, I am not a fan of Harald Uhlig. We have had many disagreements, some quite bitter, about his performance as a journal editor. I also disagree strongly with his tweets. However, I am also a strong supporter of freedom of speech, both academic and non-academic. He got an earful last week for his tweet. The only reason I did not give him crap is that I would just be piling on.
While I may not like his editorial practices, I have never heard anything indicating any racial prejudice on his part. Endorsing Trump would be far more offensive since that would put a stamp of approval on so many offensive statements, many far more offensive than anything Uhlig has said. Would people argue that he should lose his positions if he endorsed Trump? If his tweets did result in some loss of professional status, how does that improve things in any substantive way? It would not change any attitudes nor anything in economics. It would just cause others to say nothing.
My attitude is let people say stupid things, use your freedom of speech to slap them down when they do, but then get on with the business of real reform.
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If Chicago/JPE caves on this, it's the end of an era for economics. You may see that as a good or bad thing. What are the odds of Uhlig getting removed from his editorial position? 50/50? The middle ground would be to keep him in position for a year or so and then quietly replace him.
If Chicago/JPE caves on this, it's the end of an era for economics. You may see that as a good or bad thing. What are the odds of Uhlig getting removed from his editorial position? 50/50? The middle ground would be to keep him in position for a year or so and then quietly replace him.
People on this board have been criticizing the corruption in Economics for years, and rightly so. Why then you’re so concerned about the end of an era?
You may have other legitimate concerns, but ending this corruption is a good thing (and I’m not talking about Uhlig or JPE specifically here).
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Twitter and blogs are exclusively media for communicating with idiots aiming to make things go viral.
Its fine to have bad takes. But if you're communicating your takes by writing them into the idiots-making-things-go-viral platform, its hard to feel too bad for you when you get a viral mess of idiocy as a result.
He could have just told his takes to his colleagues and friends if he wanted to have a calm academic discussion about them. Or written them up more formally and put them in a newspaper. Or considered them very carefully and put them in an academic paper. If he did any of those other things, he would not be in danger of facing the mess he is in now.
I am sure you have never had a bad take in your life, and you’d be perfectly ok with a public linching for your wrongthink if you did. This is pure and simple about politics and taking down a conservative-leaning centrist economist to replace him with someone with more wokeness.
The problem wasn't voicing his opinion, it was his lack of judgment. He used horrible examples, and when he first became aware of the uproar of w.r.t. past comments, his tweets were ill-conceived, at best. Hard to imagine someone with such poor judgment is making editorial decisions at a top 5.
lol enjoy your retirement Uhlig...
Let it be a lesson to the rest of you. Never stand up for you beliefs or challenge the prevailing dogma. It's the current year 2020 after all.
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As some people know, I am not a fan of Harald Uhlig. We have had many disagreements, some quite bitter, about his performance as a journal editor. I also disagree strongly with his tweets. However, I am also a strong supporter of freedom of speech, both academic and non-academic. He got an earful last week for his tweet. The only reason I did not give him crap is that I would just be piling on.
While I may not like his editorial practices, I have never heard anything indicating any racial prejudice on his part. Endorsing Trump would be far more offensive since that would put a stamp of approval on so many offensive statements, many far more offensive than anything Uhlig has said. Would people argue that he should lose his positions if he endorsed Trump? If his tweets did result in some loss of professional status, how does that improve things in any substantive way? It would not change any attitudes nor anything in economics. It would just cause others to say nothing.
My attitude is let people say stupid things, use your freedom of speech to slap them down when they do, but then get on with the business of real reform.thanks for speaking out Prof. Judd, I hope more senior figures like you would be willing to put out a statement pointing out how censoring/punishing political opinions is a slippery slope
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As some people know, I am not a fan of Harald Uhlig. We have had many disagreements, some quite bitter, about his performance as a journal editor. I also disagree strongly with his tweets. However, I am also a strong supporter of freedom of speech, both academic and non-academic. He got an earful last week for his tweet. The only reason I did not give him crap is that I would just be piling on.
While I may not like his editorial practices, I have never heard anything indicating any racial prejudice on his part. Endorsing Trump would be far more offensive since that would put a stamp of approval on so many offensive statements, many far more offensive than anything Uhlig has said. Would people argue that he should lose his positions if he endorsed Trump? If his tweets did result in some loss of professional status, how does that improve things in any substantive way? It would not change any attitudes nor anything in economics. It would just cause others to say nothing.
My attitude is let people say stupid things, use your freedom of speech to slap them down when they do, but then get on with the business of real reform.Endorsing Trump does not mean endorsing everything he says, any more than endorsing Biden would mean endorsing everything he says (including his many deceptions). Thanks for your comment Ken but this is a bad example.
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Wait, is that article interchangeably talking about academic economists and Larry Kudlow? That's pretty terrible - they know better than that.
To be fair, with their crusade against RF at Harvard, these guys accelerated the cultural push for women in economics, so they probably figure they can force econ onto the next major social justice bandwagon.
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from the article:
"There are no black professors in the main economics department at Chicago, Mr. Uhlig’s employer, which is one of the most storied departments in the country."
there are also no native americans, pacific islanders, central asians, ...
also:
"Economics journals are still filled with papers that emphasize differences in education, upbringing or even IQ rather than discrimination or structural barriers."
wtf?! why wouldn't you study differences in education? and what are these IQ papers they are talking about?! they don't bother with citations or links. just lazy, lazy journalism.
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Uhlig may be a disgrace to our profession, but the NYT is a disgrace to intelligent people everywhere who wish to think about and debate policy issues rationally.
the fact that the passage ended with a quote for kudlow is precisely the type of deterioration in quality that led me to cancel my nyt subscription long ago
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Sure, and I agree that Twitter is total anathema poison and I am of the view that all conservatives/wrongthinkers should post there to their own peril. It can only lead to trouble. At the same time the linchmob is so insane at this point that any whiff of even politically neutral wrongthink (such as don’t cancel the police) means that you, as a conservative leaning academic, will have to bear professional suffering just for sharing your completely rational opinion? You really want to live in this clown world?
Twitter and blogs are exclusively media for communicating with idiots aiming to make things go viral.
Its fine to have bad takes. But if you're communicating your takes by writing them into the idiots-making-things-go-viral platform, its hard to feel too bad for you when you get a viral mess of idiocy as a result.
He could have just told his takes to his colleagues and friends if he wanted to have a calm academic discussion about them. Or written them up more formally and put them in a newspaper. Or considered them very carefully and put them in an academic paper. If he did any of those other things, he would not be in danger of facing the mess he is in now.I am sure you have never had a bad take in your life, and you’d be perfectly ok with a public linching for your wrongthink if you did. This is pure and simple about politics and taking down a conservative-leaning centrist economist to replace him with someone with more wokeness.
The problem wasn't voicing his opinion, it was his lack of judgment. He used horrible examples, and when he first became aware of the uproar of w.r.t. past comments, his tweets were ill-conceived, at best. Hard to imagine someone with such poor judgment is making editorial decisions at a top 5.
lol enjoy your retirement Uhlig...
Let it be a lesson to the rest of you. Never stand up for you beliefs or challenge the prevailing dogma. It's the current year 2020 after all.