Walking out of Econ 10

Said Harvardian students of Mankiw:
"Shall we occupy seats here? No thank you!
We simply despise
Inequality's rise,
Among whose enablers we rank you."

The professor replied in an entry:
"You need learning that's more supplement'ry
Before jousting the rich
With your knowledge base, which,
Like my lectures, is quite element'ry."

One of the recent highlights of the Occupy movement was the walkout last month of some of the Harvard freshmen in Professor Greg Mankiw's Economics 10 introductory class. The students asserted that "the biased nature of Ec10 contributes to and symbolizes the increasing economic inequality in America." Though the story has faded from the front pages, the Professor is continually asked about it, and gave his thoughts in a New York Times op-ed piece on Sunday. While acknowledging that claims of inherent conservative bias in the economics field are not new, Prof. Mankiw prefers to cite Keynes' view that

The theory of economics does not furnish a body of settled conclusions immediately applicable to policy. It is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of the mind, a technique for thinking, which helps the possessor to draw correct conclusions.

A Tale of Harvard & Yale

A fellow was telling a tale:
"Of the days when you'd win or you'd fail
In the gridiron game
When the summit of fame
Was the showdown of Harvard and Yale."

"The roar of the Ivy League crowd,
At the yardage denied or allowed,
Would resound at the goal
In the Field or the Bowl,
As the Crimson or Blue sang aloud."

"But the passage of time slowly went,
And Ivy League football was spent;"
Said this fellow: "At least
If we're not the Big East,
We can still be the top One Percent!"

Harvard Nobel Prize in Economics Prediction Pool

A man of conviction who needs
To declare which economist leads
May wager a bet
On the one who will get
That prize given out by the Swedes.

Nobel Prize season is upon us: on Monday, October 10, the winner(s) of the 2011 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel will be announced in Stockholm. That means that once again it's time for the Nobel Prize in Economics Pool, sponsored by Harvard University. The self-described "world's most accurate prediction market" invites economists far and wide to wager a dollar on the name of each predicted winner. Although practitioners of the Dismal Science failed to predict last year's winners, Thomson Reuters has stepped in with a handy handicapping sheet. Don't delay - entries must be received in Cambridge MA before 11:59 PM this Sunday night!