Now, on Mankiw specifically, I think he’s turned into an unprincipled hack, but I never questioned his professional qualifications. Incidentally, the Fed isn’t the top of the line for the economics profession; most of the PhDs the Fed hire are either people who couldn’t get an academic job or people who are lazy and don’t want to put in the time necessary to get tenure at an R1 university (not true of Mankiw — but true of most people at the Fed). I suspect that he was tapped to be the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors because of the ease with which he’s been willing to sell out. Most people with his qualifications are more principled.

PS. I hope you have at least worked for the Federal Reserve Board or been the Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers because to attack a guy who has done that as not being up to snuff is a little odd.

Donald Luskin is a very well respected economic analyst who is the CIO for Trend Macrolytics, which advises real firms with billions in assets. John Berry is president and CEO of American Investment Services with real money under management. John Berthoud, President of the National Taxpayers Union doesn’t ring any bells? Bill Conerly runs Conerly Consulting with major clients in the Pacific Northwest. Michael Cosgrove runs Econoclast a major consulting firm and has 15 years of experience in the private sector prior to that. David Gitlitz is the chief economist at Trend Macrolytics. Robert Hall has worked for the the Justice Department, Treasury Department, Federal Reserve Board, Task Force on Inflation Policy under Reagan, and was a member of the National Presidential Advisory Committee on Productivity. Glenn Hubbard is the Dean of the Columbia Business School, he chaired the Council of Economic Advisors for the bulk of Bush II’s first term, was strongly considered as a possible Fed Chairman after Alan Greenspan retired, was one of the economists who designed the Bush 03 tax cuts, Andrei Illarionov served for two years as the chief economic adviser to the Prime Minister of Russia, Time Kane has been involved in the startup of four firms and publishes the Index of Economic Freedom at the Heritage Foundation. I shouldn’t have to tell you the the bio of a guy like Larry Kudlow, the guy is a heavyweight.

I mean guys like Arthur Laffer, Greg Mankiw, Walter Williams, or David Weiskopf are not lightweights in the world of business or economics.

The only major name I can think of you is not on this list is Thomas Sowell, one of the most prominent economists of our time. It is well known however that he would most likely agree with the petition.

I mean so you found 1028 “economists,” big deal. It’s just so silly.

Now the matter itself: free trade with China would be an amazing thing, if China kept up their end of the bargain. And this they most certainly do not do through policies of currency manipulation, encouragement of piracy, etc. There’s no reason to let our biggest competitor in the world economy take advantage of us in that way.

If you begin with the assumption that the type of economist who signed this petition isn’t fit to lick Galbraith or Keynes boot then it is probably hard to see them as having the gravity to address this issue. As for me, so many respected names jumped off the list that I was shocked that they were able to muster as many notables as they did.