Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2013 September 6

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September 6

John Maynard Keynes

Who was the freshwater economist who (in)famously mocked John Maynard Keynes, either at a conference talk or in a published paper, by saying something along the lines of "Keynes's name is not spoken today but with a snicker"? Robert Lucas is famous for his "Lucas critique" of Keynesian macro, but I cannot remember the quote well enough to attribute it to him, or anyone else. I'm pretty sure I've got the sentiment right, though. I add that this was supposed to have taken place in the late 1970s or early 1980s, as supply-side economics really took off in the U.S. and U.K. -- Branden (talk) 06:51, 6 September 2013 (UTC)
Added a title Rojomoke (talk) 08:36, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

"Freshwater economist" ? StuRat (talk) 10:12, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

See freshwater economist. Keynes was a saltwater economist.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 10:59, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

Do any of the "quotes about Keynes" at Wikiquote fit the bill? Some are rather snarky, particularly the first, by James M. Buchanan in 1978. "Why does Camelot lie in ruins? Intellectual error of monumental proportion has been made, and not exclusively by the politicians. Error also lies squarely with the economists. The "academic scribbler" who must bear substantial responsibility is Lord Keynes... " 184.147.119.141 (talk) 11:17, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

You're probably thinking of:

"One cannot find good, under-forty economists who identify themselves or their work as `Keynesian'. Indeed, people even take offense if referred to as `Keynesians'. At research seminars, people don't take Keynesian theorizing seriously anymore; the audience starts to whisper and giggle to one another (p. 15)."

Lucas Jr, Robert E. "The death of Keynesian economics." Issues and Ideas 2 (1980). Part of this paper is viewable at google books in Lucas's Collected Papers on Monetary Economics, but not this quote. One can look forward to the same reaction to Lucas.John Z (talk) 18:28, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

Thank you so much, John Z. That's precisely it! Branden (talk) 14:49, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

national guidlines

I would like to know the definition of national guidelines, who produces them and what if the relationship to national policy in the UK. How can provider serfices rely on guidelines as being credible sources of information. Many Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ja566jasp (talk • contribs) 12:21, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

National guidelines are simply guidelines that are to be applied nationally. They are produced by all sorts of institutions, governmental, industrial, religious, secular etc, so you need to clarify what guidelines you are referring to. A guideline is not the same thing as a policy.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 16:00, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

Ja566jasp -- do you mean the British Standards Institution? AnonMoos (talk) 18:13, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

In the UK, national guidelines are generally issued by the either the responsible non-departmental public body or the government department. In a health context, it could be NICE - the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence or the Department of Health. An example is the recently issued NICE guidelines on kidney health in hospital patients.[1] Other guidelines are issued directly by the Department of Health, for instance the UK physical activity guidelines.[2] I'm not really an expert, but I imagine that Government department guidelines are more likely to be driven by politicians. There doesn't seem to be a national framework, each department issues guidelines as it sees fit, as far as I can see. They aren't law, but ignoring them could prove negligence. Alansplodge (talk) 07:25, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

I wonder if whoever chose the acronym "NICE" had read That Hideous Strength... AnonMoos (talk) 23:41, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

Unlikely, I think. I note that the BBC are now referring to it by its full (new) title, as NIHCE should obviously be pronounced "Nicky", which might give the wrong impression (to a Cockney, at least). Tevildo (talk) 00:53, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

That must be one of those rare cases where an English word has an obvious pronunciation. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:40, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

Country with most sports events won at the World Championship level

Which nation has the largest number of sports events won at the World Championship level? I'm not sure whether this correlates with the all-time Olympic medal tables, thanks. 93.174.25.12 (talk) 16:06, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

Greatestsportingnation.com exists just to calculate this kind of question. It puts the United States (overall) and Norway (per capita) top for 2013 so far. I didn't explore the site in depth, so you might want to to check if they are using just World Championships or additional criteria. Wikipedia only seems to have List of top international rankings by country which can be sorted to group the sports. 184.147.119.141 (talk) 18:25, 6 September 2013 (UTC)