We know this is true, girls just want some fun. Cyndi Lauper had it right. But what does the new cabal of economists want? Seems like there is a not so secret cabal of them, maybe lead by Scott Sumner, and they come from the University of Chicago, or have friends from there, and study neo-Keynesian thought and Libertarian thought. So what do they want?

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Well, although they are complex thinkers, figuring out some of what they want it is doable. They want unlimited, or nearly unlimited, and unbridled economic growth. That is an oversimplification of course. They no doubt require a set of circumstances for this growth to happen, and they may even disagree on what those circumstances should be. They don’t seem concerned with economic bubbles and even seem to deny they exist!

So, it is easy to look back and understand what conservative economists from the Chicago School of Economics wanted. They were supply side economists , or really, just classical economists.They sought unbridled growth with a minimum of governmental interference. Paul Douglas, who was an esteemed teacher at the Chicago School of Economics before returning after WW2 said this:

” . . . I was disconcerted to find that the economic and political conservatives had acquired almost complete dominance over my department and taught that market decisions were always right and profit values the supreme ones . . . The opinions of my colleagues would have confined government to the eighteenth-century functions of justice, police, and arms, which I thought had been insufficient even for that time and were certainly so for ours. These men would neither use statistical data to develop economic theory nor accept critical analysis of the economic system . . . (Frank) Knight was now openly hostile, and his disciples seemed to be everywhere. If I stayed, it would be in an unfriendly environment.”