economics

1. Censorship and Self-Censorship
in Public Discourse
Some Recent Examples

2. The Case of Lawrence Summers
• In December 1991, while at the World Bank, Summers signed
a memo, an excerpt of which has become known as the
infamous Summers memo, which argued that pollution from
First World countries should be dumped into Third World
countries:
• "Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be
encouraging more migration of dirty industries to the LDCs
[less developed countries]?" "I think the economic logic
behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage
country is impeccable and we should face up to it." "I've
always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are
vastly under-polluted, their air quality is probably vastly
inefficiently low compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City."
• The "memo" made him a favorite target of environmentalists
and others critical of neoliberal economics, who believe it to
be consistent with his attitudes in general and a symbol of "the
arrogant ignorance of many conventional 'economists'
concerning the nature of the world we live in" (Brazilian
Secretary of the Environment Jose Lutzenberger). Summers
maintained that the memo was misunderstood, offered as a
"sardonic counterpoint, an effort to sharpen the analysis."

3. Early Controversy as President of Harvard
• Summers, a defender of free trade and globalization, has positions on a
number of politically-charged subjects that lie to the right of the average
members of American academia. This, together with his management style
and his call to stress hard sciences in the undergraduate core curriculum,
have made him controversial as President of Harvard, particularly among
his left-wing colleagues in the humanities and social sciences.
• Early in his tenure, he criticized high-profile African-American Studies
professor Cornel West in a private meeting between the two, alleging grade
inflation in West's introductory ethnic studies course and criticizing West for
devoting too much time to extracurricular pursuits in political activism and
"spoken-word poetry." West responded angrily and publicly and later
accepted an open invitation to transfer to Princeton University.
• In 2002, Summers controversially stated that a campaign by Harvard and
MIT faculty to have their universities divest from companies with Israeli
holdings was part of a larger trend among left-leaning academics that is
"anti-Semitic in effect, if not in intent."

4. Differences between males and females
• In January 2005, Summers gave a speech [2] at a conference in
which he discussed possible reasons for the underrepresentation of
women at the top in science and engineering. He said that although
his remarks were provocative, it was vitally important to study the
underlying reasons. These may include social issues, such as
willingness to commit fully to a highly demanding career, and
biological differences between the genders:
• "So my best guess, to provoke you, of what's behind all of this is that
the largest phenomenon, by far, is the general clash between
people's legitimate family desires and employers' current desire for
high power and high intensity, that in the special case of science and
engineering, there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of
the variability of aptitude, and that those considerations are
reinforced by what are in fact lesser factors involving socialization
and continuing discrimination. I would like nothing better than to be
proved wrong."

5. The Fallout From Summer’s Gender Comments
• His remarks generated a media controversy over the
question of gender differences, and provoked criticism
from Harvard faculty. Though he initially defended his
original opinion, in a later statement he claimed that "The
issue of gender difference is far more complex than
comes through in my comments, and my remarks about
variability [in the ability of men and women] went beyond
what the research has established." [3]
• Although the subject is the widely controversial,
intelligence research shows the variance in
mathematical and scientific ability is greater in males,
meaning there are more male individuals at the high and
low extremes.[4] See sex and intelligence for further
discussion.

6. The Case of Jesse Jackson
• In 1984, Jackson became the
second African American to
mount a nationwide campaign
for President of the United
States. A major controversy
erupted during the early stages
of the race, when Jackson was
reported making remarks in
which he referred to Jews as
"hymies" and to New York City
as "Hymietown," remarks for
which he later issued an
apology. Jackson garnered 3.5
million votes and won five
primaries, all in the South.

7. Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to
Silence Him
James E. Hansen, top NASA climate scientist.

8. Bush vs. the Laureates: How Science Became a Partisan Issue
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
The New York Times: October 19, 2004
• Why is science seemingly at war with President Bush?
• For nearly four years, and with rising intensity, scientists in and out
of government have criticized the Bush administration, saying it has
selected or suppressed research findings to suit preset policies,
skewed advisory panels or ignored unwelcome advice, and quashed
discussion within federal research agencies.
• This year, 48 Nobel laureates dropped all pretense of
nonpartisanship as they signed a letter endorsing Senator John
Kerry. ''Unlike previous administrations, Republican and Democratic
alike, the Bush administration has ignored unbiased scientific advice
in the policy making that is so important to our collective welfare,''
they wrote. The critics include members of past Republican
administrations

9. From Scientific American
• Mooney chronicles “science abuse” in the Bush
administration which, in four years, has:
• Rejected scientific consensus on global warming
and suppressed EPA backing for that consensus.
• Stacked advisory committees with industry
representatives and the religious Right.
• Begun deploying a missile defense system
without evidence that it can work.
• Banned funding for stem cell research.
• Forced the National Cancer Institute to say that
abortion may cause breast cancer, a claim
refuted by good studies.
• Ordered the CDC to remove information about
condom use and efficacy from its Web site.
• Exploited a misconception about science
common among nonscientists--a belief that
uncertainty in findings indicates flawed research.
Rightists encourage debate between consensus
scientists and extremist naysayers, with the two
being given apparently equal weight. It then
seems reasonable, Mooney argues, to split the
difference or simply to argue that there is too
much uncertainty to ban a suspect chemical or to
fund a controversial form of research.

10. A Senator’s Racist Gaff?
Mississippi Senator Trent Lott • "I want to say this about
my state: When Strom
Thurmond ran for
president, we voted for
him. We're proud of it.
And if the rest of the
country had followed our
lead, we wouldn't have
had all these problems
over all these years,
either."

11. The Saga of Lott’s Resignation
• After President Bush voiced his own harsh criticism of Lott's remarks
("Any suggestion that the segregated past was acceptable or
positive is offensive, and it is wrong. Recent comments by Senator
Lott do not reflect the spirit of our country. He has apologized and
rightly so. Every day that our nation was segregated was a day our
nation was unfaithful to our founding ideals"), Lott's position became
untenable. It was obvious he would be unable to remain as Senate
Republican Leader, although the official White House line was that
Lott did not need to resign.
• Lott later agreed with the President's speech. In the aforementioned
BET interview, he said, "Segregation is a stain on our nation’s soul...
Segregation and racism are immoral.“
• Under pressure from Senate colleagues, and having lost the support
of the White House, Lott resigned as Senate Republican Leader on
December 20, 2002. Bill Frist of Tennessee was later elected to the
leadership position.

12. Book of Virtues Author on Aborting Black Babies
• Bennett defending his
remark on Fox News
• On his radio show, "Bill
Bennett's Morning in
America," Bill Bennett
said: If it were your sole
purpose to reduce crime,
"You could abort every
black baby in this country,
and your crime rate would
go down. That would be
an impossible, ridiculous
and morally
reprehensible thing to do,
but your crime rate would
go down."

13. The Aftermath of Bennett’s Gaff
• Many public officials condemned Bennett's remarks. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI)
and 56 other members of Congress demanded the suspension of Bennett's radio
show, writing that "[w]hile we all support First Amendment Rights, we simply
cannot countenance statements and shows that are replete with racism, stereotyping,
and profiling. Mr. Bennett's statement is insulting to all of us and has no place on
the nation's public air waves." That same day, White House press secretary Scott
McClellan stated that President Bush "believes the comments were not
appropriate."
• Bennett later attacked his critics, claiming his comments were embarrassing to them
because of their support of abortion. On the October 5 broadcast of the nationally
syndicated Focus on the Family radio program, Focus on the Family founder and
chairman James C. Dobson suggested that the reason "the left has reacted so
viciously to you [Bennett] is that their own abortion movement is rooted in racism."
Bennett agreed and expanded on these remarks by stating that "this is the sort of
thing, I think, that was probably in their minds. On a conscious or subconscious
level, that had something to do with the viciousness of the attack."
• But to many, Bennett's views on abortion were not the issue. As Media Matters
wrote at the time: “Of course everyone understands that Bill Bennett doesn't want
to abort all black babies. The issue is that Bennett, upon thinking "crime rate,"
immediately thought of black people. The issue is that Bennett thinks and speaks of
crime as an issue of race.
• Similarly, Conyers wrote in his weblog that "Bennett's suggestion that African
Americans are synonymous with crime… is a text book case of stereotyping and
racism."

14. The Case of Pat Robertson
• After Israel’s Prime Minister, Ariel
Sharon, suffered a debilitating stroke,
Christian broadcaster and former
Republican presidential candidate Pat
Robertson said on his TV program, The
700 Club: “God considers this land to be
his. You read the Bible. He says ‘This is
my land,’ and for any prime minister of
Israel who decides he is going to carve it
up and give it away, God says, ‘No, this is
mine.’”
• Robertson invoked the 1995 assassination
of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who
sought to achieve peace by giving land to
the Palestinians, saying: “A terrible thing
happened, but nevertheless he was dead.”
• The White House sharply criticized the
statement: “Those comments are wholly
inappropriate and offensive and really
don’t have a place in this or any other
debate,” presidential spokesman Trent
Duffy said.
Jan. 6: Former Republican Presidential
Candidate Pat Robertson Again Causes
Controversy with His Public Remarks

15. Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases (By Shankar Vedantam, Washington
Post Staff Writer, January 30, 2006; Page A05)
• As the United States has become increasingly politically polarized – red states vs.
blue states; pro-Iraq war vs. anti-Iraq war; pro-same-sex marriage vs. anti-same-sex
marriage -- social psychologists have grown increasingly interested in studying
political behavior using such specialized tools such as sophisticated psychological
tests and brain scans.
• Emory University psychologist Drew Westen put self-identified Democratic and
Republican partisans in brain scanners and asked them to evaluate negative
information about various candidates. He found both groups quick to spot
inconsistency and hypocrisy -- but only in candidates they opposed.
• Partisans of all stripes found ways to discount negative information about the
candidates they liked, Westen said. When the unpalatable information was rejected,
furthermore, the brain scans showed that "reward centers" in volunteers' brains were
activated. The way subjects dealt with unwelcome information had curious parallels
with drug addiction as addicts also reward themselves for wrong-headed behavior.
• Another study explored racial bias and political affiliation, analyzing self-reported
beliefs, voting patterns and the results of psychological tests, and finding that
supporters of President Bush and other conservatives had stronger self-admitted and
implicit biases against blacks than liberals did.
• Brian Jones, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said he disagreed
with the study's conclusions. He also questioned whether the researchers
themselves had implicit biases -- against Republicans -- noting that Drew Westen and
Harvard psychologist Mahzarin Banaji had given campaign contributions to
Democrats.

16. Restoring the American Community
• On December 7, 2003 Governor Howard Dean, candidate for Democratic
Party’s presidential nomination spoke in Columbia, South Carolina:
• “In 1968, Richard Nixon won the White House. He did it in a shameful
way – by dividing Americans against one another, stirring up racial
prejudices and bringing out the worst in people. They called it the
"Southern Strategy," and the Republicans have been using it ever since.
Nixon pioneered it, and Ronald Reagan perfected it, using phrases like
‘racial quotas’ and ‘welfare queens’ to convince white Americans that
minorities were to blame for all of America's problems.
• “The Republican Party would never win elections if they came out and said
their core agenda was about selling America piece by piece to their
campaign contributors and making sure that wealth and power is
concentrated in the hands of a few. To distract people from their real
agenda, they run elections based on race, dividing us, instead of uniting us”

17. Political Correctness for Governments?
• U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will press U.S. allies
today in London to deprive the incoming Hamas-led
Palestinian government of financial support unless it abandons
terrorism and accepts the existence of Israel.
• In a statement released to mark Holocaust Memorial Day,
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan described those
who questioned whether the Holocaust took place as "bigots".
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been widely
criticized for claiming that the Holocaust was a "myth".

18. When Did the Holocaust Start?
• Novick shows how the concept
of the Holocaust gradually
gained ground in public
awareness. He notes, by way
of illustration, that in the 1950's
American Jews tended not to
stress the special quality of
Jewish suffering, because that
might have drawn attention to
the fact that many Eastern
Jews were sympathetic to
Communism.