Thursday, September 11, 2014

London Sharks the Lump

Proof that economic journalists don't need to know any economics: Peter Coy is Bloomberg Businessweek's economics editor:
"Those who say that London sucks the vitality out of other cities are committing what economists call the lump-of-labor fallacy: that the amount of work to be done is fixed, so if one person gets a job then someone else is unemployed. The truth is that the rich young City traders everyone loves to hate are buying stuff made throughout the U.K."
Note to Mr. Coy: the real truth is that... according to the fallacy claim's implicit criteria, whatever anyone said about anything could be shown to be committing the lump-of-labor fallacy. You have committed the lump-of-labor fallacy by accusing others of committing the lump-of-labor fallacy!

1 comment:

Magpie said...

Maybe Mr. Coy was just being... coy. :-)