Economic Journal Watch — new issue

Comments: Miscounting Money of Colonial America: Ronald W. Michener and Robert E. Wright argue that Farley Grubb, writing in Explorations in Economic History, has mistaken the unit of account for the medium of exchange and grossly misestimated the money supply of colonial America. Farley Grubb responds vigorously to them, and not for the first time.

The Intellectual Tyranny of the Status Quo: Previously, Richard Timberlake criticized the “golden fetters” interpretation of the Great Contraction, and argued that the failing stemmed, rather, from the Fed’s adherence to the Real Bills Doctrine. While endorsing Timberlake’s vindication of the gold standard, Per Hortlund argues that Timberlake and others misfire with respect to the Real Bills Doctrine. Also in the previous issue, Kurt Schuler’s Argentina article indicted more than 90 economists for mistakes in understanding and description—among them, David Altig and Brad Setser, who here criticize Schuler’s charges. Schuler responds.

Do Economists Reach a Conclusion on pressing policy issues? Adrian T. Moore and Ted Balaker exam the case of taxi policy.

Economics in Practice: William J. Baumol explains why modern textbook theory is entrepreneurless.

Character Issues: In 1981, as the Thatcher government got its legs, 364 economists signed a letter protesting the direction of monetary and fiscal policy in Britain. Geoffrey Wood examines how well the letter has stood up.

Does the American Economic Association lean Democratic? William A. McEachern investigates the 2004-election cycle campaign contributions of AEA members, committee members, officers, editors, referees, authors, and acknowledgees.

Daniel Klein explores Gunnar Myrdal’s plea for disclosure of one’s ideological sensibilities, surveys the research into the ideological character of the AEA, and reports new findings on AEA membership rates by voter category.

Correspondence: E. Roy Weintraub remarks on History of Political Economy’s being dropped from the Social Science Citation Index. How can a journal show high SSCI citation productivity when the cluster of journals that cite it are excluded from SSCI?