When Lacking Policy Proposals, Attack Diversity

Or, on reading “Blake Masters, a G.O.P. Senate Candidate, Links Fed Diversity to Economic Woes”:

Figure 1: Top panel, “Misery Index” calculated as sum of year-on-year CPI inflation and unemployment rate, % (blue); Bottom panel: breakdown of directors of the Federal Reserve System. Source: BLS via FRED and author’s calculations, and Nicker (2021).

In the “good ol’ days”, one can see no racial diversity in the Fed system. Lest one think all was hunky-dory from 1914-1971 (the first nonwhite director is appointed in 1972), here’s a plot of the misery index, using data from the NBER’s Macrohistory Database (via FRED).

Figure 2: Top panel, “Misery Index” calculated as sum of year-on-year CPI inflation and unemployment rate, % (blue) [official statistics], and from corresponding series from NBER Macrohistory Database, % (tan); NBER defined peak-to-trough recession dates shaded gray; Bottom panel: breakdown of directors of the Federal Reserve System. Source: BLS via FRED, NBER Macrohistory Database via FRED, NBER, and author’s calculations, and Nicker (2021).

The misery index was higher during the period for which we had data, during that purportedly golden age. For the period during which we don’t have data, we know that recessions were much more frequent.

Hence, I think the argument that increasing racial, gender, or gender-orientation diversity is the cause of the current challenges in macroeconomic conditions is devoid of any intellectual content. This is self-evident, but I thought it would be useful to document these correlations — until such time as somebody explains how increasing diversity along several socio-economic dimensions has damaged the conduct of economic policymaking.

 

[Note: I have never been an employee of the Federal Reserve Board or System; I have been a visiting scholar at the Board and SF Fed, but not within the past 20 years.]

 

 

50 thoughts on “When Lacking Policy Proposals, Attack Diversity

  1. Moses Herzog

    Are you saying the Great Depression wasn’t just a keg party, and that the rumors of joblessness and hunger during that era are all true?? And next you’ll be saying we had inflation long before Jimmy Carter took office!!!! The crazed ideas you have about life Menzie, I mean really. You know Fox News was thinking of giving you Stevie Kopits’ 4:00am “It’s a Slow News Day” segment sponsored by Exxon and TransCanada Energy and now you’ve shot that opportunity all to hell and that “news” segment is going to Johnny Cuckrant over at Hoover, the place Barkley Rosser calls “the birthplace of ethics and morality”. What do you have to say in defense of yourself Professor Chinn??

    1. pgl

      Wait – we had Prohibition until 1933 so it was hard to even get a keg. Now maybe if more beer had been served in the White House back then, we would not have had the disasterous macroeconomic policies!

      1. Barkley Rosser

        BTW, just for the record, I believe that what I have said about the Hoover Institution here (not contradicted by anything I have said elsewhere) is that is it a predominantly conservative outfit, but that it also operates largely at a high scholarly level and has had some non-conservatives at it. It has for some time been the fave place for prominent people in the University of Chicago econ dept to go to after they leave there. That would include the late Milton Friedman, whom the now late M.S. Gorbachev shook the hand of at one point when the latter was visiting the Bay area.

        I think you, Moses, got all in a fit about the Hoover Institution at one point when Jim Hamilton participated in a conference there. You thought he should not have done so, and I defended him doing so on the grounds of it being respected scholarly institution, despite its general orientation. I also noted then that I have myself made many presentations at conservative and libertarian places, without listing them all, and I know Menzie has done so on occasion as well. This is what scholars and academics do, we speak at a variety of venues, even those that may have views we do not necessarily agree with. I have done it many times, and as organizer of the JMU economics seminar series I have had in to speak a wide variety of speakers covering the full ideological and methodological spectrum from extreme libertarian to Trotskyist leftist.

        So, Moses, just what were you trying to prove with this inaccurate wisecrack anyway? That you are a congenital idiot despite your massive number of high level of security clearances? Given that numbskulls like Anonymous and CoRev have supposedly had them, having them is no guarantee of intelligence.

    2. Barkley Rosser

      Moses,

      I know you are trying to be sarcastic, but since you put it in quotation marks, let us note just for the record that I never said what you claim I did in your quotation marks, which, I guess, everybody is supposed to find highly hilarious or something.

    1. Moses Herzog

      Copmala Harris says “both”.

      Remember she was “that girl on the school bus”, going from an upper middle-class, college educated parents’ house, to a suburban white kids school. Can you imagine the pure hell of life that was?? If only Helen Keller knew that kind of pain she never would have traded in on all her privilege. And don’t get me started on that spoiled and privileged brat Anne Frank.

      Around that era, redlining forced black Berkeley residents to live west of what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Way, in the flatland neighborhoods like the area Harris grew up in. Finacom described Harris’ neighborhood at the time as “an integrated community with families of various races, both middle class and poorer residents, and both renters and homeowners.”

      ……….

      “Kamala Harris made her career by locking up Black people in the Bay Area,” said Blake Simons, assistant director of UC Berkeley’s Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center and co-creator of the Hella Black Podcast, in a Twitter thread. “Her track record consists of terrorizing Black communities through the prison industrial complex.”

      Simons criticized Harris’ response to 2014 orders that California reduce minimum-security prisoners’ sentences in overcrowded prisons. Lawyers for Harris at the time argued that the incarcerated workers, who performed jobs that often paid much less than a dollar an hour, were part of an important labor pool that had to be maintained.

      Harris’ record as a senator is less extensive than her history as a prosecutor, as she was only elected in 2016.
      https://www.berkeleyside.org/2019/01/24/did-kamala-harris-berkeley-childhood-shape-the-presidential-hopeful

      Oh the pain, the excruciating pain of getting the FREE bus ride from suburban diversified upper middle class neighborhood to suburban mostly white public school. I mean, maybe Menzie knows since he spent time there, Berkeley was like nearly indistinguishable from “sundown towns” of Alabama at that time, right??? Almost identical I guess…….. How did Copmala survive this carnival of horrors???? We’ll never know. This must have added to her geographical confusion and selective vertigo, when asked by Lester Holt if she had been to the southern border we share with Mexico and she answered in the affirmative. The rides on the school bus left her permanently confused about national borders~~because of the deep lingering pain of riding a public school bus.

      Oh, the torment!!!!! Never-ending vexation!!!! Oh!!! I can’t think about it anymore today!!! Whaaaaaaa!!! Where did my “woke” “safe space pills” go. I’m feeling exigent stress someone might poke fun of my hairline today!!! I may never recover!!!!

      1. AndrewG

        Your completely irrelevant attack on the first female and first black vice president is on a post about Republicans attacking diversity.

        Your other (also completely pointless and off-topic) comment included a non sequitor against Barkley Rosser.

        If you have been prescribed medication, take it.

        1. Moses Herzog

          @ MyBeauteeeeefulAndreaG
          Au contraire mon ami, AndreaG, you find it very relevant, or why dedicate your love to me like this, in such a public forum?? Ah, my leetle much ado about somezing. [kiss, kiss].

  2. Macroduck

    Off topic, hydrogen fuel –

    The relative environmental virtues of hydrogen as a fuel have been discussed in the Econbrowser comments section. One important issue is the distinction between “green” hydrogen and “blue” hydrogen. The real green stuff is produced without relying on fossil fuels, while blue hydrogen is extracted from natural gas. The natural gas industry has engaged in a “greenwashing” campaign to obscure the difference. Here is a look at some of what the Inflation Reduction Act does with regard to hydrogen fuel and the response from gas industry lobbyist:

    https://www.desmog.com/2022/08/29/blue-hydrogen-economics-gas-industry-lobbying-united-states-climate-change/

    1. baffling

      i know you don’t like that blue hydrogen. i seem to be a bit more pragmatic. i do believe our future world will be electric and hydrogen. i do not see a direct road to just green hydrogen. i am willing to let blue hydrogen exist while we build out the infrastructure and equipment. then i would have no problem making blue hydrogen obsolete, in favor of green hydrogen. i think it is a tough road to go to green hydrogen directly.

      1. Macroduck

        I have to object to describing as “pragmatic” a policy which involves large capital expenditures and employment – as well as subsidies – in support of continued use of a greenhouse gas. Path-dependency is a real thing. Letting a climate-changing technology in on the ground floor of hydrogen power gives it a head start. What assurance do we have that polluting “blue” hydrogen will be transitional? It certainly isn’t the intention of the natural gas industry for its market share to be transitional.

        The record on dealing with climate change is delay, obstruct and lobby. The result is serious drought in the western U.S., Europe and China, heat waves over an even wider area, extraordinary flooding in Pakistan. Taking for granted that hydrogen fuel based on hydrocarbons will transition to more environmentally friendly technology is contrary to the lessons of history.

        1. baffling

          “What assurance do we have that polluting “blue” hydrogen will be transitional? ”
          its a fair question. however, I think there are a lot more people willing to take that position than you believe. I also believe that once a hydrogen infrastructure is in place, and renewables can produce it at an economical price, then we can do something about the blue hydrogen. it happened to coal, so it is possible. but I don’t think you get any rollout of hydrogen infrastructure (meaning more distribution pipelines, engines, etc) with green hydrogen only production in the near term.

          about 15 years ago, I was involved in a large hydrogen infrastructure research proposal. it did not get funded. if it relied on only green hydrogen today, I think it would be the same result. if it relied on blue and green hydrogen today, I think it would have a fair shot at funding. you need to make hydrogen (irregardless of source) an important contributor before you start dictating the hydrogen source. that is my pragmatic side.

  3. pgl

    I could quibble about the equal weighting of inflation and unemployment in this misery index but I am sure if inflation gets a lower weight and unemployment gets a higher weight, this alternative index would debunk the racist suggestions from Blake Masters.

  4. pgl

    “Look I don’t care if every single member at the Fed is a Black lesbian,” began Mr Masters in a video shared on his personal Twitter account Monday night. “As long as they’re hired for their competence, not because of what they look like or who they sleep with.”

    Wait – his problem is having Blacks on the FED? Or is it chicks since he did not say anything about white gay guys.

    Now we know Janet Yellen is happily married to George Akerloff but damn it this chick is only 5’3″ which bothered Donald Trump. Of course Milton Friedman was only 5’0″. Does Masters have a problem with Dr. Yellen’s qualifications? Trump seemed to as Trump is a height bigot as well as a flaming racist.

    OK enough venting. I have a challenge for Mr. Masters – please tell us who on the FED is not qualified and why. And then tell us who should be on the FED instead. Stephen Moore? Lawrence Kudlow? After all both are white guys.

    1. Baffling

      The reason why we try to have diversity in education is exactly because of people who think like masters. This qualifications argument seems fair at first, until you realize the system does not train any minorities to choose from in the first place. You can control access at various points in the pipeline. We did this for decades in America. Not just by race, but economic class as well.

  5. pgl

    This story is 18 months old so hopefully there are more than 0.5% of the FED economists who turn out to be black:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/business/economy/federal-reserve-diversity.html#:~:text=Black%20people%20are%20less%20represented%20within%20the%20Fed,as%20of%20data%20the%20Fed%20provided%20last%20month.

    The NYTimes author noted gathering data on diversity in hiring was not easy so I guess we can forgive her for not figuring out many lesbians work for the FED.

  6. joseph

    I’m waiting for Rick Stryker to jump in with his megapixel pictures saying “Don’t believe your lying eyes. Nothing classified to see here.”

    Presumably Trump used the standard government procedure of closing his eyes, shouting “I DECLARE UNCLASSIFIED”, turning around three times, and spitting. That’s the way it’s done in Trump World.

    1. pgl

      Rick “Perry Mason” is telling us that Trump only violated the Presidential Records Act. After all selling our national security secrets to Putin is his right as King Donald I.

  7. Moses Herzog

    [Note: I have never been an employee of the Federal Reserve Board or System; I have been a visiting scholar at the Board and SF Fed, but not within the past 20 years.]

    I’m pretty certain this wasn’t a self-lobbying effort here and more of a “transparency” thing, but if it makes you feel any better I’d trade you for white guy Powell as Fed Chair tomorrow morning if they asked me.

    But if I had power over FOMC membership my new vacancies and fill-ins would forever be known as the “Labor Day Massacre”. Whether that would be good for “diversity” I don’t know, because if I put, say, a Menzie Chinn in the FOMC, I would NOT have a checkbox for “scrappy Chinese Guy”. I would just put him there because I knew he would do the job. Etc etc.

    scrappy adjective
    2 : having an aggressive and determined spirit : FEISTY

  8. pgl

    Dr. Oz on the abortion issue:

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/mehmet-oz-may-audio-abortion-murder-stage-pregnancy-rcna45621

    Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz said in May that abortion at any stage of pregnancy is “still murder” because he believes that life begins at conception, according to newly obtained audio. “I do believe life starts at conception, and I’ve said that multiple times,” Oz, a Republican, said at the time in a tele-town hall, going on to add: “If life starts at conception, why do you care what stage our hearts starts beating at? It’s, you know, it’s still murder, if you were to terminate a child whether their heart’s beating or not.”

    Well that was quite clear. Women of the State of Pennsylvania – Dr. Oz believes you have no rights over your own body.

    1. Moses Herzog

      You have to think “Dr.” Oz runs back to his TV show after he proves he’s only the 2nd worst political campaigner in modern history, next to Hillary Clinton. So how much of “Dr.” Oz’s former TV audience (98% females) does he ostracize by telling them if they had or if they did have an abortion they are “murderers”?? And does Oprah Winfrey want to continue to be associated with a guy who calls women “murderers” for caring about their own health??

      How does a guy with Turkish ethnicity, whose father emigrated to the USA in 1950, embrace and coddle the “Very Stable” Orange Guy who banned MidEast immigrants to the USA??

      Mehmet Cengiz Öz is taking the same path of ground Mike Pence once walked on. Thinking he can ride the MAGA train to glory. But just like Mike Pence, Mehmet Cengiz Öz is going to get off the MAGA train, and find only his wife and dog still like him (and his dog is wavering).

      1. Barkley Rosser

        What? Hillary Clinton is worse than “Copmala Harris”???

        She made some mistakes in 2016, but note that she did get 3 million more votes than Donald Trump, and she would have won the electoral college as well if James Comey had not made that announcement of his reopening his ultimately vacuous investigation of her emails 11 days before the election. Clearly the biggest goof she made was not firing her aide Abedin when the latter failed to divorce Weiner, leading to him having some of HRC’s bloody emails on his phone when the FBI was investigating him for all his sex stuff. Yeah, clearly evidence of being the worst campaigner in history.

        1. Moses Herzog

          I’m ranking Copmala Harris 3rd worst campaigner. She dropped down from 2nd worst campaigner in modern history after Mehmet attacked a stroke victim and revealed he didn’t know what a vegetable tray was. Actually the latter one sounds like something you would do Barkley. Walking around a party saying crudités to each social circle you ran into about 20 times, zeroing in on their eyes to see how bored they were when you said crudités, going to each of the 20 social groups at the party to test run crudités, more shocked than the last time no one noticed how sophisticated you were.

          1. Barkley Rosser

            You are right, Moses. That is exactly the sort of thing that I do all the time. After all, I am the most pompous person posting here and proud of it. I promise that I say even more obscure and esoeteric things to people at social gatherings just to put them down and show my intellectual superiority all the time, :-).

  9. Bruce Hall

    Ran across an interesting (and hyperbolic) article. Before I provide the link, I’ll include this about the author:

    >Résumé

    I am a wholly independent vagabond writer, statistician, scientist and consultant. Previously a Professor at the Cornell Medical School, a Statistician at DoubleClick in its infancy, a Meteorologist with the National Weather Service, and a sort of Cryptologist with the US Air Force (the only title I ever cared for was Staff Sergeant Briggs).

    My PhD is in Mathematical Statistics, though I am now a Data Philosopher (I made that up), Epistemologist, Probability Puzzler, Unmasker of Over-Certainty, and (self-awarded) Bioethicist. My MS is in Atmospheric Physics, and Bachelors is in Meteorology & Math.

    Author of Uncertainty: The Soul of Modeling, Probability & Statistics, a book which calls for a complete and fundamental change in the philosophy and practice of probability & statistics; author of two other books and dozens of works in fields of statistics, medicine, philosophy, meteorology and climatology, solar physics, and energy use appearing in both professional and popular outlets. Full CV (pdf updated rarely).

    Now, he may be a crackpot and a racist or he may just be a snide genius (hard to tell the difference sometimes… especially the snide part). This particular article addresses DIE in the medical field, but one could imagine how a comparable situation might play out for engineering or computer technology or economics or corporate CEOs. It’s certainly playing out well in politics, eh?
    https://www.wmbriggs.com/post/41958/

    1. pgl

      Leave it to you to find some self loathing person complain that blacks in this nation get too many opportunities. Yea – you are a flaming racist but could you have skipped this particular post to highlight how utterly racist you are.

      1. Bruce Hall

        The post was only superficially focused on race. The primary point was that the elimination of standards (or the significantly lowering of such standards) to accommodate one particular demographic was both counterproductive and itself racist. But leave it to you to miss the point again.

        Do you disagree with the AEIR data displayed in the graph? Do you disagree that the policy discussed harmed Asian American medical school candidates? Do you disagree that the policy discussed potentially harms patients? Do you argue that “representation” is far more important than “qualifications” and “competence”? Do you believe that a random selection of medical school students is better than one based on demonstrated abilities to reason and remember salient facts?

        What is your argument? Only that you disapprove of the source of the information regardless of the fact that the information is correct? Your petty snobbery is showing through. CV?

          1. pgl

            American Institute for Economic Research educates people on the value of personal freedom, free enterprise, property rights, limited government and sound money.

            Sound money? Oh gold standard clowns. Personal freedom aka White Power. Property rights aka don’t tax me to address poverty. Limited government – drill baby drill. And you trust these people on issues outside their lane? Of course you do. MAGA!

          2. pgl

            Should we trust AIER on medical issues? Let’s see:

            https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/american-institute-for-economic-research/#:~:text=American%20Institute%20for%20Economic%20Research%20RIGHT-CENTER%20BIAS%20These,to%20emotion%20or%20stereotypes%29%20to%20favor%20conservative%20causes.

            Failed Fact Checks
            Asymptomatic spread of COVID-19 never occurs – Inaccurate
            A Senior Research Fellow at AIER asked us to review the above fact check as they felt it was in error and misattributed to them. The author of the story, Jeffrey A. Tucker, states in the article, “With solid evidence that asymptomatic spread is nonsense, we have to ask: who is making decisions and why?” Mr. Tucker references a study by Cao et al. that reveals out of 300 asymptomatic cases, none were infectious. However, Prof Fujian Song a corresponding author of the research, said of the study, “There is plenty of evidence elsewhere showing that people infected with COVID-19 may be temporarily asymptomatic and infectious before going on to develop symptoms.”

            Furthermore, Health Feedback, directly states that AIER’s statement is from one of two articles they are fact-checking where they report and provide hyperlinks to the AIER article: “These claims appeared on websites, such as the American Institute for Economic Research website and this blog. Both rely on a research paper by Cao et al. published in Nature Communications in November 2020 as evidence. Through cherry-picking one small study that even the study authors state does not tell the whole story, Mr. Tucker concluded, “Forget rare. Forget even Fauci’s previous suggestion that asymptomatic transmission exists but does not drive the spread. Replace all that with: never.” Based on his statements that asymptomatic transmission is “nonsense” and that asymptomatic transmission “never” occurs based on this one study, we conclude that the Health Feedback fact check is accurate and correctly attributes AIER through a hyperlink to their archived article.

        1. Menzie Chinn Post author

          Bruce Hall: The question is whether the standards had the desired effect (that is indicating quantity/quality of knowledge) or merely restricting the number of people. For instance, one could say propertied classes were better educated on average and hence better able to make decisions regarding voting; so a “poll tax” could be argued as appropriate. Now standardized tests are another means of evaluation. As somebody who does pretty well on such tests (at least in the past), I am biased in favor of saying they measure “something”. But is that something that ability to do math, understand logic, and define words? Or is the standardized test measure the ability to … “take tests”. I don’t claim to know the answer, but you should ask yourself whether, if you took the MCAT back when you were 21, whether you would’ve done well or poorly, and whether that was a good indicator of whether you’d be a good doctor or not.

          1. Moses Herzog

            For whatever it’s worth (not much) as a white dude, I think I have already expressed at least once before on this blog, if you randomly presented me with a white M.D. or an Asian Indian/Pakistani MD, I would take the Asian Indian every time. 98% of the ones I have seen strike me as “on the ball” and less “When is my golf tee off time?” types.

            If you’re not afraid your doctor siblings/relatives will think you’ve flipped your lid for asking, I dare you Menzie to ask them what their experience is with white doctors vs. Asian Indian doctors, and see if their experience doesn’t tell them the same~~GENERALLY i.e. 8 times out of 10.

            You don’t have to share their response with the blog~~just ask them Menzie

          2. Menzie Chinn Post author

            Bruce Hall: I’m not sure what that has to do with standardized tests as a means of assessing capabilities and/or requisite knowledge. I’m actually of open mind on this. That’s the virtue of being in a public policy school (as opposed to a pure economics department) — one gets exposed to lots of different disciplines, so that one knows certain things are not “settled”.

            As for the Communist revolution in China – well heck, I’m not surprised. Family connections don’t disappear even in the most rigorously (purportedly) egalitarian movements.

            And sometimes, a revolution will devolve into replacing one elite with another elite that had large overlap with the original elite…

          3. Bruce Hall

            As somebody who does pretty well on such tests (at least in the past), I am biased in favor of saying they measure “something”. But is that something that ability to do math, understand logic, and define words? Or is the standardized test measure the ability to … “take tests”.

            I suppose, to some extent, that depends on the nature of the tests. Multiple choice? Just pick “C”. Statistics? Hmmm. Knowledge and the ability to know what is the appropriate measure perhaps. Chemistry? Just throw something in a beaker and see what happens. Medicine? The hip bone connected to the leg bone.

            I would think that you, as a professor, would have a pretty good handle on what tests measure. You don’t see the relationship between tests and the ability to communicate ideas, to innovate, to solve? Well, maybe the tests are the wrong tests or maybe we’re all just the same and it’s just a matter of privilege or maybe the tests do exactly what they are supposed to do.

            That reminds me of an IQ test my oldest son took in elementary school. The question was, “What is the opposite of shrink?” His answer: “podiatrist”. Yeah, he did very well in engineering physics at the University of Michigan.

          4. Menzie Chinn Post author

            Bruce Hall: You go to a good primary school, you’ll get pretty good practice for taking standardized tests. You have a stable family structure, you are more likely to do well on a a standardized test. So all I’m saying is standardized tests are not necessarily measuring innate ability.

          5. Moses Herzog

            @ Professor Chinn
            “You go to a good primary school, you’ll get pretty good practice for taking standardized tests. You have a stable family structure, you are more likely to do well on a a standardized test. So all I’m saying is standardized tests are not necessarily measuring innate ability.”

            Thank you so much for saying this. It’s a point that even many people in higher education cannot register. This is an example of one of the things I love about this blog and your writing—things like that little gem right there. You probably see it as near self-apparent. I can promise you you’d be amazed how many of your higher education colleagues refuse to recognize this fact. The old Barry Switzer quote “Some people are born on third base and forever think they hit a triple.”

            My personal opinion is, that this is more of a socio-economic problem than race. But I’m a white dude, so what would I be expected to say??

        2. pgl

          “The primary point was that the elimination of standards (or the significantly lowering of such standards) to accommodate one particular demographic was both counterproductive and itself racist.”

          So blacks are stupid and do not deserve opportunities. No Brucie – THAT is the racist part. It is a very old dog whistle and you know it. Now – your mommy needs to wash your KKK clothing before you go out tonight.

        3. baffling

          “Do you argue that “representation” is far more important than “qualifications” and “competence”? ”
          typical of people like bruce, they completely miss the reality. you pose your discussion in a way that says you get one or the other. you won’t even acknowledge that you can have both simultaneously.

          let me give you an example in football. mike tomlin was hired as the steelers head football coach. his hiring was a result of the Rooney rule, which requires teams at least consider a minority applicant. prior to, it was a good old boys network of hiring head coaches. in many pro sports, minorities are actually the majority who participate in the sport. and yet until recently, minorities in head coach and front office positions have been few. does that not seem strange, even to an old white male, that the people who actually play the sport don’t seem capable of running the sport? that has changed somewhat in recent years, but only because the spotlight has been put on the issue. ever wonder why so many coaches kids end up as young head coaches? yeah, they really did earn those summer internships that put them on the fast track to coaching. privilege does matter, but should it? you think those kids were the most qualified? or born at the right time?

    2. pgl

      “Pandering to blacks in higher education has been routine for some time before Penn’s move. Blacks, for instance, had on average worse scores on the MCAT than Asians, but blacks were accepted at much higher rates than Asians. Here’s one example of many, from AEI.”

      The American Enterprise Institute? Bruce Hall knows how to find the bottom of the barrel every time. BTW Brucie – you do realize Dr. Uncle Tom is saying Asians are smarter than you are. Oh wait – my dog is smarter than you. Never mind.

      1. baffling

        bruce, I would ask you. do you think standardized tests have a racial bias? and if you do, why would you consider to use them as a proxy for success? and if you don’t, do you simply believe that asians are simply smarter than African Americans?

        standardized tests are simply a shortcut in evaluating the prospects of a student. it should not be assumed they are particularly accurate. and with mounting evidence that they are biased against certain groups (especially underprivileged and minorities), why should we continue to give much weight to their results?

        regarding the mcat, it is only one metric used in the medical school admission process. the most important metric is the interview.

    3. Moses Herzog

      Nothing sells books and sells better to the village idiot crowd (the ones who can’t do the most basic math equations) than saying “We need to do X in a whole new way!!! It’s not because you’re an idiot who can’t do algebra and on up—it’s all of the rest of us!!! We’ve been doing [ fill in semi-complex topic here] math the wrong way all these years!!!!”

      NO, NO, NO…… you are just an idiot.

      Uhm, “Sorry not sorry”.

    1. pgl

      Such tributes to the Klan in New York? Yes folks – there are too many racists here too. Did you check out the latest racist garbage from Bruce Hall. I guess his doctor is Uncle Tom.

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