Monday, October 11, 2010

Clearly unqualified

Nice timing:

President Obama sent three qualified nominees to the Senate several months ago to serve on the board of governors of the Federal Reserve. Two were confirmed after significant delays. The third, MIT's Peter Diamond, was blocked by Senate Republicans.

It appears that the Nobel Prize committee was more impressed with Diamond than the GOP was.

The 2010 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science was awarded on Monday to Peter A. Diamond, Dale T. Mortensen and Christopher A Pissarides for their work on markets where buyers and sellers have difficulty finding each other, in particular in labor markets.

For decades, the researchers have studied what happens when a market is not made up of identical, cookie-cutter units -- as is true with the job market, where all workers have different skills and weakness. In many cases, there are significant search costs to finding the ideal match between a buyer and a seller of a good, like the job to a job-seeker.


Keep in mind, he appears to have been blocked by one conservative senator, Alabama's Richard Shelby (R), who said Diamond, among the most accomplished economists of his generation, lacked the necessary qualifications for the Fed.

Diamond's Nobel prize in economics makes Shelby look a little more ridiculous this morning.


So, you're saying it's a day ending in "Y"?

10 comments:

Athenawise said...

" ... Alabama's Richard Shelby (R), who said Diamond, among the most accomplished economists of his generation, lacked the necessary qualifications for the Fed."

Shelby, among the most bigoted and incompetent Republican senators of his generation, lacked the necessary qualifications for the Senate.

Fixed it.

StonyPillow said...

You cannot divide by zero. You cannot exceed the speed of light. And it is both a mathematical and physical impossibility for Richard Shelby (R-Toyota) to look even one iota more ridiculous, no matter his effort.

DrDick said...

What do a bunch of furriners in that socilistical Sweden know about proper economic policy? Further proof that the man is patently unqualified for the position.

jimmiraybob said...

Recognition for intellectual rigor is just another black mark against him in today's neo-Confederate Tea-GOP. That he might have the goods to actually understand and help fix a problem is itself problematic to the goal of government instability and ineffectualness and getting "their" country back.

Anonymous said...

Intellectual qualifications are a disadvantage to today's Confederate Party because they feel threatened by intelleigent people. Much better to promote a lazy dumbass who believes stupidity and ignorance are virtues.
If Diamond had only announced, "Ah go with mah GUT" in a southern-ish drawl while clearing brush, he'd be sitting on that Fed board already.

pansypoo said...

gotta keep them stoopid in alabama to keep the republikkklans in power.

Raoul Paste said...

gotta keep them stoopid in alabama to keep the republikkklans in power.

And it seems to be contagious. Ohio may vote itself into southern ignorance and poverty.
Sigh.

pansypoo said...

this should be the highlight of a commercial about republikkklan STONEWALLING.

DanF said...

Despite all their multicolored, Excel-generated, pie charts, the CATO economists were passed over again?

jimmiraybob said...

To be fair though, I think that even if Alabama's Richard Shelby (R) is a Jeffrey Dahmer reenactor, we need to know all the facts before passing judgment.

However, since it's "out there" it would be irresponsible not to speculate as to his motives.