European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 24, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Sunday March 24, 1991 the stars and Stripe Walter Mears Page 15 commentary simple matter of giving economic advice Jake it from the elder statesman of economic advisers most of the advice he and his colleagues provide to presidents and the Power Structure is based on freshman economics not cutting Edge theories. But Herbert Stein says that s neither confession nor failure just Plain fact about the kind of economic advice that is practical and usable at the top of the government. Stein gives his appraisal in an essay in a the american Enterprise on what it is that economic advisers do for a living. He a made his living that Way for More than 52 years 13 in government jobs. Stein served on the Council of economic advisers during. The Nixon administration and As its chairman from 1972 until 1974. A it May seem a shocking thing to say but most of the economics that is usable for advising on Public policy is at about the level of the introductory undergraduate course a he says. According to Stein now a senior fellow at the american Enterprise Institute a Washington think tank that a because of the limits of what he Calls a advisable economics a meaning tested reliable concepts and propositions Many of them dating Back nearly 200 years to Adam Smith. The most sophisticated economists he says use Only the most elementary principles when they advise officials about economic policy. The More arcane advanced theories Are of Little use to advisers who have to make their lessons understandable to the politicians they counsel. Nuclear physicists can give official advice without explaining How they came to it Stein says a but economists do not have this a a a a a a a \ a a a a a a that keeps them closer to the basics. A elementary economics May seem to outsiders a trivial contribution to the decision making process but it is not a Stein writes. A a. The fact is that few non economists Are accustomed to it or would arrive at it without the advice of still he lays no claim to wizardry for economic advisers summing up two Les sons of a Long career As a Washington economist this Way a a a economists do not know very much. A a a other people including the politicians who make economic policy know even less about economics than other people including presidents done to always concur. They have tended to complain about the either or counsel of economic advisers. Harry s. Truman once said that if All the people who advised him on economics were Laid end to end they would forma perfect Circle. According to Stein that a not All bad. He says his tour at the Council of economic advisers convinced him that a the highest product and Best test of an advis tick tick tick. Or was the options paper Quot offering decision makers a list of promising choices and the Best arguments for and against them v a advising of course is a two sided process Quot he says. Quot. Harry Truman is quoted As saying that he wanted a on armed economist who say a on the one hand and on the other a but a person who thinks that Way cannot get Good economic advice because the essence of the matter is uncertainty and the need to consider different Stein served on president Reagan a economic policy advisory Board and says lie got the impression a that there were subjects on which he could not be advised such As the desirability of raising not that it did no to happen repeatedly during the Reagan years. They just did no to talk about it. Quot to get Good advice an Advisee must want it Quot Stein says. But it does no to come in tidy packages. A one might imagine an economic adviser to. Be like the mad scientist in his Laboratory cooking up the Ideal prescription and giving it All to his principal a Stein writes. Quot it is really not like that at instead of economic answers advisers try to outline the Best alternatives a president has. After that its up to the Boss a c Tho associated Ros Swilliam f. Buckley Tribune co. For keeping news afloat i met Robert Maxwell at the extravaganza Given to celebrate the 70th birthday of the late Malcolm Forbes in Tunisia he rescued me and my wife from the oppressive heat on the first night and with a Friend swooped us Down to his air conditioned yacht where in company with his wife we had a splendid dinner during which he several times reminded me that he was a socialist. I several times consoled him that there is nothing much that can be done about some congenital problems. A he gave me to read a biography about him which indeed i did read confirming the general impression of him that he is a difficult human being and something of a Genius As an entrepreneur. He is fiercely Loyal to his family while firm in insisting that he will not leave his Fortune to the second generate oils he does no to believe in inherited wealth. That declamation Drew a discreet Wink from his devoted wife of 46 years. I do not think he took seriously my suggestion that if he had no other heirs specifically in mind i would gladly Volunteer. An interesting thought that he is Only three years older than i am but conceivably he might leave me the new York daily news. If he does that i shall certainly inaugurate my reign by raising the salaries of the news columnists. Ten Days ago in Switzerland writing a Book i had a Call from him. This was several Days before the final Deal was made and for a half minute or so a which is a decade of Robert maxwells business hours time a we chatted about this and that. He called me he then said to ask whether in my opinion the new York daily news was really an integral part of new York City a culture. I said the answer to that question was an unequivocal yes. And i do believe id have Given him the same answer to that question at any time during my adult lifetime never mind that my own column in the past has been carried by the journal it folded the world journal Tribune it folded and the new York Post. Loyalty to ones sponsoring paper get in the Way of objective appraisals of the importance of other papers i would not for instance hesitate to Tell anybody that the most important paper in the country is the new York times. But the question asked of me by a British citizen under the circumstances raised an interesting Issue. It is whether a newspaper owned by a non National can absolutely adapt to the local cultural scene. It is widely known that Many newspaper entrepreneurs buy and sell newspapers without any concern whatever for what gets printed in those papers provided they earn their keep. Rupert Murdoch has owned publishing properties that i warrant you would need to tie him Down gag him and pry his eyelids open to Force him to read so removed Are they in editorial Content from his own dispositions. Now there Are Here and there prominent americans who take a categorical position about foreign ownership of newspapers. . Rosenthal the great architect of the modern new York times believes flatly that the same Laws that protect our radio and television stations maximum permissible foreign ownership 25 percent should extend to daily newspapers. My own View is rules of that kind Are unpersuasive hut there is nevertheless a Point there. To use a conscience arousing example suppose that the majority Stock of the new York times had been owned by Saddam. Hus but a word or is i think appropriate irrespective of the Welcome everyone in new York gives to the Brit who saved a valued cultural institution. It is this that the much reviled Tribune co. Of Chicago has got very unfair neglectful treatment. When you get congressmen and cardinals and governors automatically siding with striking unions when an Enterprise is losing $.71 0,001 per Day the inequity is plainspoken. Maxwell is. About to resume puh Lishing with approximately the same reduced work Force that the Tribune co. Asked for. But what had developed was personal and ideological hostilities that ended by simply excluding reconciliation Between the factions at War and this notwithstanding that if there is a More patient better informed and More reasonable Man in town than publisher James Hoge he should be sent to the Mideast to solve the israeli Arab impasse. A the Tribune earnings for the entire year have been dissipated just to keep the news alive and somebody somewhere should Register gratitude for an act of civic philanthropy which is what this essay is Universal press Syndicate. The opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the l United states government
