Chomsky on the Economy

Jason

With all due respect to Mr. Chomsky and all that he’s accomplished as a linguist…why the hell is he being interviewed about the economy? I realize he can have an opinion and do research just like anyone else, but then what’s the point of picking him? He’s not an expert. Furthermore, his lack of expertise kind of shows in this interview.

Oct 22, 2008 @ 2:52 PM

Bryan Klausmeyer

I’m not the biggest fan of Noam Chomsky and I don’t think what he has to say here is particularly enlightening, but at least in terms of the financial crisis, most of the experts were wrong (save for a handful).

Of course this doesn’t mean that any “Joe the Plumber“‘s opinions on the economy are somehow more or less valuable than that of a so-called “expert“‘s—a rather relativistic and untenable position I might add—but it does call into question the nature of expertise and to what extent expert opinion is derived from market sentiment, as opposed to the actual dynamics of the system, and whether “expertise” is merely titular or instead reflective of an ability to expertly reason and communicate.

Personally I found these two programs on “This American Life” to be the most informative on the financial crisis (much better explained here than by the “experts”):

• http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355
• http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1263

Oct 22, 2008 @ 4:48 PM