Talk:Tyler Cowen/Archive 1

Nassim-Taleb
Does the refutation of Prof Cowen's review really merit a section to itself? It seems to be exageratting an intelluctual debate into a personal rivalry. Nassim-Taleb criticises everyone who disagrees with him.AleXd (talk) 12:40, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Austrian school?
Based on what rational has he been influenced by the Austrian school, at least to an extent necessary to to associate him with it? An Austrian would never write this: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/business/economy/01view.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=Cowen&st=cse —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.84.186.219 (talk) 17:27, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

He has also criticised the Austrian business cycle on numerous occasions. He'd probably get a laugh from seeing this page 69.81.118.164 (talk) 00:59, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Tyler predicted the bursting of the bubble in January of 2005
Source:  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.6.52.70 (talk) 02:04, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

List of Rules & Rituals
A May 13 profile in The Washington Post talks about Cowen's "specific rules and rituals for everything". When asked by email, Cowen said "There isn't any single catalog, but over time various views get blogged or written up in books."

I am wondering if it would meet the Wikipedia guidelines to create a page where we can "crowdsource" his catalog of rules & rituals. Please let me know.

Jwehr (talk) 20:53, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

External links modified
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Commentary about views on gay marriage
Hi Santiagobernstein. We've had a bit of an edit war over this page, and we should sort it out here instead of trying to fight over the page. You want the text


 * Cowen is a social liberal who believes the state should affirm the practice of homosexuality by giving marriage licenses to homosexual couples.

to be added to the section on Political philosophy. For reference, see my recent edit removing this line. This line has a reference of this article, which does not fully support your suggested edit, causing your suggested edit to, in my opinion, count as WP:Synthesis. This was also suggested by jmcgnh on the IRC channel #wikipedia-en-help. In my opinion, a line that would more accurately reflect the source is


 * Cowen supports gay marriage being legal and believes that people who are heterosexual should also support it being legal.

However, since most academics in America support gay marriage being legal and this is not a significant view held by Cowen, this seems to not belong on Wikipedia because of WP:BALASP. Thus, I support this line being removed from the page.

Gbear605 (talk) 06:27, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Since I posted this, Santiago engaged in another edit war about this line, this time with with User:LakesideMiners. I don’t want to engage in more edit warring with this line so I’m leaving the line in for now, but I definitely still think it should be removed. Gbear605 (talk) 18:30, 30 November 2018 (UTC)


 * I agree with Gbear605 and LakesideMiners that your preferred sentence does not belong in this section. First of all, any short description of Cowen's political philosophy like "social liberal" is leaving out too much. Any short description other than, perhaps, "non-doctrinaire libertarian" would be problematic. Next is the interpretation "supports the state giving marriage licenses to homosexual couples" in place of "legal gay marriage (which I support)". They may mean the same thing to you, but in the absence of a secondary source making that interpretation, you cannot make the substitution here. Finally, Cowen's support for gay marriage is an entirely incidental issue. In that blog post, he was using it as an example in explicating his general Bayesian approach to decision-making. Cowen neither campaigned for gay marriage legalization, nor is this a significantly outstanding opinion that Cowen is known for. By inserting your sentence here, you have given it UNDUE weight, aside from the above-mentioned issues.
 * This sentence and variants has been inserted and removed quite a large number of times now. You appear to be the only one insisting on it being there, but you have never joined in the discussion here on the talk page to defend your view.  — jmcgnh (talk) (contribs) 18:30, 2 December 2018 (UTC)

Hi jmcgnh, please see the discussion below.Santiagobernstein —Preceding undated comment added 20:06, 2 December 2018 (UTC)

Information icon Hello, I'm LakesideMiners. I wanted to let you know that I reverted one of your recent contributions —specifically this edit to Tyler Cowen— because it did not appear constructive. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you have any questions, you can ask for assistance at the Help Desk. Thanks. LakesideMinersMy Talk Page 17:39, 30 November 2018 (UTC)

Thank you for your note LakesideMiners. Can you please explain what you believe is incorrect in the edit? It has been adjusted to accurately reflect the original news source but another user keeps deleting it. Santiagobernstein (talk) 21:20, 30 November 2018 (UTC)Santiagobernstein

Santiagobernstein, I looked at the reference that you sourcred. No where does it say in the source that you used that she is a social liberal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Tyler_Cowen#Commentary_about_views_on_gay_marriage there is also something on the talk page about this. LakesideMinersMy Talk Page 14:15, 1 December 2018 (UTC)

LakesideMiners, in the paragraph immediately preceding (footnote 18), Cowen, explicitly and in his own words, describes himself as "a liberal on most but not all social issues." If you'd like, we can cite that article again in the note. Thanks for your interest. Further, Cowen is a "he", not a "she." Santiagobernstein


 * You haven't addressed the issues we've brought up about your edit.  — jmcgnh (talk) (contribs) 20:58, 2 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Also for consideration: How does Cowen's view on alcohol consumption, expressed as an entirely private preference, fit into a section on "Political philosophy"?  — jmcgnh (talk) (contribs) 02:17, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

sometimes poor people will die just because they are poor
"We need to accept the principle that sometimes poor people will die just because they are poor." Cowen's remark generated responses of horror, but if this is a principle it might be mentioned.--Wetman (talk) 00:09, 4 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Without a reference, this quote doesn't belong in the article (or the talk page). All quotes need references. --JHP (talk) 00:25, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * It's not like it's hard to find. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/06/what-kind-of-mandate-should-the-right-have-supported.html -- Jibal (talk) 21:58, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

the truth about Tyler Cowen
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R36KZ17V03D3MI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1250108691 P.S. Saying that "Cowen is completely aware of all that" is not relevant and does not mean that the reviewer missed anything. This is like saying that criticizing mass murderers misses the point because they know they're mass murderers. In addition, it is not remotely true that "Cowen is completely aware of all that". -- Jibal (talk) 22:06, 4 May 2021 (UTC)


 * What that reviewer is missing is that Cowen is completely aware of all of that; the point that he is intentionally eliding from the book but knows well is that while it is better for society if people are not complacent, it's better for the individuals if they are complacent. https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2017/12/16/book-review-the-complacent-class/ (I too can link to arbitrary URLs to prove my point!) Either way, however, adding a link to an Amazon review isn't exactly a good contribution to Wikipedia... Gbear605 (talk) 14:02, 10 February 2018 (UTC)

Removal of criticism section
MMT is for now an out-of-mainstream doctrine (and is generally considered to be so), but a) economics do allow heterodox doctrines to be discussed, b) seems COVID forced MMT closer to the center of the economic debate. I don't think we should discredit an economist based on his/her being an MMT supporter. If we allow Austrian School for discussion, so we should MMT. The criticism section gave too much space for a single person, agreed; however, it was salvageable and, in my view, acceptable, as the guy in question is a subject-matter expert with relevant expertise and papers published, therefore I don't agree with the recent removal of Criticism section. There are some folks on the forum who are not subject matter experts (J.D. Alt is an architect who became interested in MMT), but others have the necessary credentials, and the stories they publish seem to be just fine for a WP:OPINION piece. In particular, the pieces that were deleted were actually editor-in-chief's posts. While WP:SELFPUB says no self-published source should be used for whichever BLP claim, the post does not relate strictly to BLP but rather to the scholarship the person writes, which is not, from my reading, covered by WP:BLP - this has more to do with normal debate rather than making claims about a person's life, and that's if we assume there's no editorial oversight at all. There is some though, because it does seem to employ at least some editorial oversight, since "guest bloggers" actually get there through subject-matter experts' hands before being published. I'd personally treat it as an advocacy website for MMT, but not as a self-published resource. Szmenderowiecki (talk) 09:54, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

Can't see any reason to have two book lists? Anyone agree?
Especially as neither lists are consistent with each other.

By my reckoning the complete list should be:


 * 1991	Public Goods and Market Failures: A Critical Examination (2 ed.). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. 1991. ISBN 978-1560005704.
 * 1994	Explorations in the New Monetary Economics (1994)
 * 1998	Risk and Business Cycles: New and Old Austrian Perspectives. Psychology Press. 1998. ISBN 9780415169196.
 * 2000	In Praise of Commercial Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2000. ISBN 978-0674001886.
 * 2002	What Price Fame?. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2002. ISBN 978-0674008090.
 * 2004	Creative Destruction: How Globalization Is Changing the World's Cultures. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2004. ISBN 978-0691117836.
 * 2005	Markets and Cultural Voices: Liberty vs. Power in the Lives of Mexican Amate Painters (Economics, Cognition, and Society). University of Michigan Press. 2005. ISBN 978-0472068890.
 * 2006	Good and Plenty: The Creative Successes of American Arts Funding. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2006. ISBN 978-0691120423.
 * 2007	Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist. Dutton Adult. 2007. ISBN 978-0525950257.
 * 2009	Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World. Dutton Adult. 2009. ISBN 978-0525951230.
 * 2010	Modern Principles of Macroeconomics (2010) with Alex Tabarrok
 * 2010	The Age of the Infovore: Succeeding in the Information Economy (2010)
 * 2011	The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better. Dutton Adult. 2011. ISBN 978-0525952718. OCLC 714718051.
 * 2012	An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies. New York, NY: Dutton Adult. 2012. ISBN 978-0525952664. OCLC 839314802.
 * 2012	Modern Principles of Economics (2 ed.). Worth Publishers. 2012. p. 900. ISBN 978-1-4292-3997-4.
 * 2013	Average is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation. Dutton Adult. 2013. p. 304. ISBN 978-0-5259-5373-9.(Wikipedia page)
 * 2017	The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream. New York, NY: St. Martins Press. 2017. ISBN 978-1250108692. OCLC 981982936..
 * 2018	Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals. Stripe Press. 2018. ISBN 9781732265134.
 * 2019	Big business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero, New York: St. Martin's Press, 2019. ISBN 9781250110541, OCLC 1031569569Oiona (talk) 20:52, 12 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Agreed. It's ridiculous to have two book lists. Carlstak (talk) 12:35, 13 December 2021 (UTC)