Just lifting aggregate demand is not a development strategy
Both the Treasury and its critics seem to fall short in adequately justifying their arguments with recourse to robust literature
The growing distrust of expertise is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, technocrats leveraging expert knowledge hold considerable responsibility for illegitimately dismissing popular demands that issues of social concern — such as concerns about growing inequality — be addressed. On the other hand, inexpert discourse, such as conspiracy theories, pose a greater threat than before and expertise has an important role to play in refuting it.
A good example concerns the antivaccine conspiracies that are proliferating in the middle of a widespread and deadly pandemic. US immunologist Anthony Fauci said in a recent interview with the Financial Times that the growing distrust of experts is a problem we can’t run away from. One need not fetishise technocracy, nor give it pride of place over popular action, to recognise a role for experts and academics producing analysis relevant to any number of progressive causes...
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