Common Mistakes Made By Economists
1. Political power matters. There are many outcomes that are economically efficient in the short term but lead to a dangerous imbalance of political power in the long term
I wouldn’t use the word “imbalance” – balances can be dangerous too, but otherwise the most overwhelmingly important point in politics.
8. Policy arguments are often conscripted for political purposes…
This is a great sighting near the surface of something so deeply assumed that the assumption is normally invisible: policy is the opposite of politics.
Klein’s strapline is “Economic and Domestic Policy, and Lots of it”. But politics is only allowed in when it forces itself, by point 1.
I have only seen the view of politics being opposite to policy stated so clearly by critics, such as in Mencius Moldbug’s Explanation of democratic centrism