Eliezer’s econ case is based on reading Scott Sumner’s blog, so it’s not very informative that Sumner praises Eliezer (3 out of 4 endorsements you linked, the remaining one is anon).
bfinn was discounting Eliezer for being a non-economist, rather than discounting Sumner for being insufficiently mainstream; and bfinn was skeptical in particular that Eliezer understood NGDP targeting well enough to criticize the Bank of Japan. So Sumner seems unusually relevant here, and I’d expect him to pick up on more errors from someone talking at length about his area of specialization.
Eliezer’s econ case is based on reading Scott Sumner’s blog, so it’s not very informative that Sumner praises Eliezer (3 out of 4 endorsements you linked, the remaining one is anon).
bfinn was discounting Eliezer for being a non-economist, rather than discounting Sumner for being insufficiently mainstream; and bfinn was skeptical in particular that Eliezer understood NGDP targeting well enough to criticize the Bank of Japan. So Sumner seems unusually relevant here, and I’d expect him to pick up on more errors from someone talking at length about his area of specialization.