Apology from Dr. Kocherlakota

Last week on day 3 of DBlog week I wrote a post titled “Words and Analogies.”  This week I received an apology from Dr. Kocherlakota.  In it, I complained that Dr. Narayana Kocherlakota had used poor judgment in using an analogy that the cheap money is like insulin for a person with diabetes. I want readers to know I received a response from Dr. Kocherlakota, and I hope you will read along to see who Dr. Kocherlakota is and what he said in response to my post.

Dr. Kocherlakota

Who is Dr. Narayana Kocherlakota?

At the outset, I have to acknowledge that confronting him with my words was daunting.  Dr. Kocherlakota is the Lionel W. McKenzie Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester.  He is the former President of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve an organization that governs the banking industry in the six states of the Ninth Federal Reserve District, which include Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, 26 counties in northwestern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Dr. Kocherlakota has published more than 30 theoretical and empirical articles in academic journals, and he is widely regarded as one of the giants of understanding the mechanism of monetary and financial policy in a national economy.  He was educated at Princeton and the University of Chicago.  He is an advisor and influencer to the world’s power elite who think about how economies do or don’t work.  In other words this is one very intelligent individual.

Wait why were you writing about this guy?

Why a site about Diabetes and Rheumatoid Arthritis would be talking about a noted economist might seem a mystery.  But on April; 21, 2016 Dr. Kocherlakota published an article in Bloomberg News titled “Easy Money Is Like Insulin”.  In it, he makes an analogy about the world needing inexpensive money t o thrive and a person who needs insulin to live.

Frankly while his analogy may have been poorly thought out, there was little that he said which was offensive.  He made the analogy in good faith, and it was not mean spirited, and though the outcome was poorly phrased it was not overtly insensitive.

But what tipped the balance and made me write my article during blog week was what happened next.  The noted economist and Noble Laureate took the piece written by Dr. Kocherlakota to a whole different level.  In answer to Dr. Kocherlakota’s article Paul Krugman wrote an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times titled “The Diabetic Economy.”  In this piece, Dr. Krugman took the analogy used by Dr. Kocherlakota and made it much more offensive.  In essence, Dr. Krugman played the diabetes card to describe a persistent deflationary trend (something to be avoided at all cost) in Europe as being akin to having diabetes.

Then last week

Last week I complained loudly to Dr. Kocherlakota and Dr. Krugman about using diabetes or insulin to describe a negative situation.  Or as an analogy to more easily describe an economic issue.  I simply wanted to make sure that both men understand that diabetes is a complicated issue.  Injecting insulin is not a simple process, and I wanted them to know that I felt both articles tended to minimize greatly (for the sake of an analogy) the issue of living with diabetes.  I told them loudly, in fact, that they should seek analogies elsewhere.  There is nothing simple about diabetes or the use of insulin.  Both men missed the boat, in my opinion, when they decided to use that which we suffer with as a simple way to describe anything, let alone the complexity of the economy.

The Apology by Dr. Kocherlakota

Imagine my surprise when I got at least half a response.  It seems that Dr. Kocherlakota heard my complaints and to his credit he responded.  These are two tweets he sent me last week.

“ @LawrPhil @diabeteshf much apologies for any harm – my post only intended to emphasize beneficial role of permanent use of *insulin*

1/2 @LawrPhil @diabeteshf in treatment – just like mon. pol. But I agree my post should’ve been more sensitive to the issues you raise.”

                Tweets received May 19, 2016 from: @kocherlakota009

I was not expecting any response, but what Dr. Kocherlakota wrote is wonderful.  I believe he got the message and at least for my part, I am delighted he responded.  It takes a high caliber human to say he is sorry, but it takes an even higher caliber human who makes academia his life to apologize in writing.

So thank you Dr. Kocherlakota for hearing me.  You are my new hero in the world of economics.  I think you got it.

Now as for Dr. Krugman?  It would be nice to hear from him and hear him acknowledge that his drawing a diabetes analogy was at best in poor taste and at worst hurtful.  It would be nice to hear him promise to be more sensitive in the future.  It would be nice to hear anything.  After all, Dr. Krugman is a Nobel Laureate, also a distinguished academic and in this case extremely insensitive.  So how about it Dr. Krugman, the silence is deafening, and yes it defines you for the countries nearly 30 million people with diabetes.

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Take away for May 27, 2016

• Using diabetes as an analogy to explain things is in poor taste
• Simplifying Diabetes is a misunderstanding
• Calling insulin an acceptable treatment is not acceptable
• Words do matter and the lack of words matters as well