The efficient-markets logic undercuts the very need for expert economic advice.

Evidence

Stigler posed a provocative question: If markets generally work, then why should this not be the case for the marketplace of ideas? And if the marketplace of ideas works, then why should the public need a Milton Friedman? Or, for that matter, a George Stigler? It was a threatening question for an economist, and Stigler knew it. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 146

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how did this internal anti-populism tension resolve in Chicago’s later institutional strategy?
• SEED: Angle: ‘the economist who proved economists shouldn’t matter’ — Stigler’s self-undermining logic as a window into neoliberal internal contradictions.
• XREF: connects to: Efficient-market theory undercut the professional credibility it seemingly supported. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 350; Practitioners read efficient-market theory as claiming investment advice has zero value — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 352

Broader Connections

• Efficient-market theory undercut the professional credibility it seemingly supported. #corroborates (0.95) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 350
• Practitioners read efficient-market theory as claiming investment advice has zero value #expands (0.92) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 352