Angus Deaton

A worthwhile read

I shared with my institutional subscribers how important I found this note from Nobel prize-winning economist Angus Deaton. While you may not know him by name, Professor Deaton (Princeton) is the progenitor of the phrase, “Deaths of Despair” alluding to the rising mortality rate of white non-Hispanic Americans, notably the working poor males. If you have not read the paper, it can be found here.

An hour long interview with Professor Deaton and his co-author, Professor Anne Case, can be found here:

Angus’ letter is linked here and transcribed below. I cannot emphasize enough how much I am haunted by the John Maynard Keynes quote: “Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back”