Tyler Cowen, who is the Director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and the host of one of the most popular economic blogs, offers a unique defense of R&R. He argues that some pandering is necessary to maintain one's prominence in the media market. R&R may have overstated their position by concluding that economic growth declines when sovereign debt exceeds 90% of GDP, but that helped them to attract public attention to their work. Paul Krugman explains why that is a very weak defense of R&R.
Tyler Cowen's defense of R&R is also a defense of himself. The Mercatus Center is funded by the Koch brothers. It takes libertarian positions to attack climate change proposals and other progressive ideas that are not appreciated by contributors to the Mercatus Center. He is very good at adapting libertarian philosophy to his purposes. In other words, he operates much like R&R. They are very smart people who have adapted to the real world of celebrity.
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