“Economics professor emeritus Daniel Hamermesh will withdraw from his position next fall, citing concerns with campus carry legislation,” dailytexanonline.com reports. “’With a huge group of students, my perception is that the risk that a disgruntled student might bring a gun into the classroom and start shooting at me has been substantially enhanced by the concealed-carry law,’ Hamermesh wrote in the letter.” [Click on the link for his resignation letter.] And when, pray tell, will Hamermesh rid the University of Texas of his presence? . . .
Hamermesh, who said he is under contract to teach his course in fall 2016 and fall 2017, said he will complete the semester at UT and will teach at the University of Sydney next fall . . .
“My guess is somebody thinking about coming to Texas is going to think twice about being a professor here,” Hamermesh said. “It’s going to make it more difficult for Texas to compete in the market for faculty.”
Hamermesh has taught at several universities since 1969, and his research has been published in more than 100 scholarly journals, according to the Economics Department.
What does that tell you? Meanwhile, I wonder why The Daily Texan didn’t include a photo of Professor Hamermesh. [h/t DH]
Well . . . bye.
Tombstone is one of my top 5 movies of all time.
Good riddance. Let’s hope more professors do the same. Get rid of the ones with tenure, especially.
And we especially should get rid of economics professors. They’re responsible for more damage to the American Republic than any other cohort of academics.
Keynes was right, once:-) Unfortunately, Galbraith never was.
Not sure Keynes was ever right even once and that whole school of economics is setting up all of western civilization to be circling the drain sometime in the next few years. That is, unless Iran succeeds in getting a really good EMP design finished first.
Keynes had a few original and reasonable ideas.
Keynes had a bright idea with the “bancor,” a suggested international reserve currency based on a basket of commodities chosen so that no one nation could have hegemony over the currency. It never came to fruition. He also had a pretty firm grip on which economic activities give the largest “economic multiplier” in an economy. Manufacturing is very high on the list of desirable industries to have, and when the US was the manufacturing powerhouse of the world post-WWII, we had an incredible period of economic growth and prosperity. Sadly, today, there is a school of economists peddling the idea that we can get rid of dirty manufacturing (like steel, textiles, mining, oil exploration, etc), and become a “service economy,” with some high-skill economic activities like software and computers and remain an economic powerhouse. The current economy is the result.
The biggest problem with economics is that economists become wed to their ideas, and won’t change their minds when the data show that the idea has a) no predictive skill, or b) the policy based on the ideas isn’t panning out as predicted.
Keynes was pretty close to right about the consequences of the treaty of Versailles.
As for the rest, I myself, don’t have much confidence in the spending multiplier and imagine that the US did so well after WWII was largely because much of the competition in manufacturing throughout the world was in rubble.
That’s correct – the period of the 50’s was one where we had bombed several manufacturing competitors to rubble, the others (in particular, the UK) decided to commit suicide-by-trade-union, the USSR decided to double down on the mistakes of a command economy, and China & South America were still wondering what steel was for.
By default, the US and Canada were the manufacturing giants of the world.
Aye!
Second to political science, history, and psychology professors.
I’m shocked that an American with no understanding or education in Economics spews hatred for the field that he knows nothing about.
Actually, I know a fair bit about economics. Studied micro-econ in college as a minor. I read economics papers on a regular basis. I manage my own investments, too, rather successfully.
Macro-econs are among the most unaccountable nitwits in policy circles today. Show me a macro-econ, especially those making recommendations on national economic/political policy, who have seen results that conform to their predictions and theories. Doesn’t matter which side of the aisle, Keynesian or monetarist (eg Greenspan), liberal or conservative, their prognostications for policy haven’t come true. Right now, they’re all standing around, thumbs up their butts, wondering a) why the Keynesian stimulus plan of 2009 so underperformed, and b) the monetarists at the Fed are puzzles why their absurd ZIRP and QE policies aren’t stimulating the economy as they’d expect. Every quarter, we hear the Fed talk about when they’re going raise rates… and the next quarter (or the one after), they back down from their prognostication about raising rates.
Our current economic situation is the fault of economists making policy. Our mess with Obamacare is due to another economist making policy. Our mess in trade is due to economists making policy. So yea, I know a thing or two about economists.
An “American”?
Maybe he can go work at a university in Utah. ?
Good riddance.
“’With a huge group of students, my perception is that the risk that a disgruntled student might bring a gun into the classroom and start shooting at me has been substantially enhanced by the concealed-carry law,’
Does this dingbat not get that his precious piece of paper (law) doesn’t prevent this? A disgruntled student can do that at any time. It’s appalling to think that a so-called “educated” man really believes that someone who’s willing to commit multiple felonies (assault with deadly weapon and murder) will balk at passing a ‘gun-free zone’ sign.
What the law has “enhanced” is the chance that should a disgruntled student come into his classroom with a gun, there could be another student with a CCW to save his elite ass. All that education to stay stuck on stoopit…
I think it’s just a political statement. I mean, it has to be, right? There’s no way on earth that any even partially sane or partially rational person believes that a school policy against bringing guns into the classroom would actually deter — TO ANY DEGREE WHATSOEVER, no matter how minuscule — a criminal who’s intent on breaking various felony laws up to and including murder from doing so, right? I mean, it’s so f’ing absurd I can’t even entertain the thought that anybody with at least juuust enough intelligence to put their own pants on could conceivably believe such a thing.
Um…
It’s completely a political statement. He is, after all, professor emeritus, meaning he’s already put in his 25-30 years, has a lifetime parking pass and is already coasting on a fairly sizable retirement nestegg. He doesn’t need to teach, but where would all the fledgling economists be without his benevolent wisdom enhancing their lives? He was probably going to quit anyway, why not do it with a political statement “that will really shake them up!” When the current faculty realize the great and noble Daniel Hamermesh is leaving UT, the rest of the junior faculty will flock to his side like rats to the pied piper of Hamelin. He is, after all, on the right side of history, which will show he was 100% correct and there will be blood flowing across campus like the advancing tide…
I deal with these sorts of self-aggrandizing, special-snowflake-individuals on a daily basis, and they’re all so wildly out of touch as to be in their own separate, confined bubble of reality.
All these dingbat Liberal Socialist UT professors need to read:
“Pretend ‘Gun-Free’ School Zones: A Deadly Legal Fiction.”
by David B. Kopel
Connecticut Law Review, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 515-584, December 2009
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1508514_code42480.pdf
One less Liberal perverting the minds of our “children” is fine with me.
I hope more line up right behind him.
So, what according to him is currently keeping (or has ever kept) a disgruntled student from bring a gun into the classroom and starting to shoot at him?
I’m not certain that mystery will ever be solved.
And there’s the rub. Lots of academics and lawyers think that because they put words onto a piece of paper that it will prevent people from doing “X.”
As we know here, most mass murderers don’t intend on being taken alive. They either die by going up against the LEO’s and getting killed, or they kill themselves when the LEO’s close in.
When you’re dealing with someone who is willing to die, there’s no arrangement of words on a piece of paper that will have any bearing on what they want to do. Any intervention must be physical – either restraint, confinement to a jail cell or mental facility, or flat-out killing them before they can succeed. Those are the only options.
Sadly, a lot of people think that passing “one more law” will do the trick.
And don’t let the door hit you on ass on the way out
Please don’t let the door hit you in the ass, and geab a few more freedom and liberty hating socialist professors to take with you on the way out.
So he already planned on leaving the University of Texas for the gig in Sydney. This is just a convenient excuse. That’s how I read his ccoment.
NA NA NA NA, NA NA NA NA, Hey Hey Hey, GOODBYE.
These Hoplophobes are so scared of even a picture of a gun, or listen to a radio station in a college town, they bleep out the word gun, 45, etc…..
They need Pshyciatric HELP. If this is gonna be the standard in reaction, we need all schools to allow CCW’s.
Get Rid of all these close minded to Liberty thinkers they are poisoning the next generations.
Clear out all these types. If you have a business, allow CCW. Resturant all CCW.
They speak of critical thinking but only if you are thinking their way.
GUNS -1 Professors – 0.
I’m happier than ever that I supported the campus carry bill. Causing twits like him to quit polluting young minds is a HUGE bonus I didn’t anticipate.
two birds, one stone–not bad…
Probably a Keynesian anyway, who cares?
He’s got a point, you know. CSU has allowed concealed carry on campus since 2003 and wow, you can’t even walk around campus without tripping over dead professors. The blood in the streets is a problem, too. Sometimes they even use those ghost guns that have the ability with a .30-caliber clip to disperse with 30 bullets within half a second. Thirty magazine clip in half a second. Oh, no, actually that’s wrong, no crimes involving concealed carry permit holders ever happen on the CSU campus.
Well, don’t stand on ceremony.
Get on with it, and get on your way.
Sick of sending your kids to expensive colleges just to see them get brainwashed by communist loons? Send your kids to colleges in states with campus carry. Apparently communist statist professors avoid those Universities entirely.
Splendid. He is leaving the US to go abroad where some pissed off jihadist will cut his head off in the classroom over a bad grade or being disgruntled he couldn’t get a date on goatherders.com.
They may have trouble getting “educators” to apply, but I’m pretty sure student enrollment will increase, if their gun-toting parents have anything to say about it… I want my kids to be somewhere other than a “Gun/self defense free zone”
“It’s going to make it more difficult for Texas to compete in the market for hoplophobic, panty soiling, left wing liberal faculty.”
Fixed that for ya.
Dan, don’t forget to put your ‘Gun Free Zone’ sign in your front yard so everyone can know your political position on this issue!
A university professor from the “ignorance (my own) is bliss” school of thought, and he can’t tolerate being educated. Like five and Jomo said above… does this “professor” really think that it’s the change in the law that is what has placed him in jeopardy, and it actually protected him before? And that the students that are so law-abiding as to go through all the steps required by Texas to legally carry are the ones that will become “disgruntled” and commit assault or murder?
What a maroon. Just demonstrates that a PhD doesn’t mean you’ve got common sense.
Sounds like a win-win for UT.
That terrified of his students, this guy must be a flaming asshole!
Lilly livered pansies shouldn’t be allowed to teach in TEXAS anyway! You teach economics. Do the math, would somebody waste the cost of a bullet on you? Either you think too much of yourself, or you have a guilty conscience about the way you treat your students. Via con nachos!
Austin is a little piece of California deep in the heart of Texas.
Let’s dispense with the name calling. As it happens, Hamermesh was one of, if not my favorite profs at UT. Taught a great class. If he disagrees with our way of thinking, that’s fine. But that doesn’t make him a worse person than any of us or a “pansy.”
Wrong. Disagreeing with any shred of a logical argument, and standing your ground makes you a man. Yelling the liberal screed of “guns are bad, they’re killers” and resigning makes you a pansy.
Daniel has,
A: a political agenda.
B: Was retiring anyway.
C: Lives in fear
D: Is deluded to believe a lawful CCL person/citizen is a criminal in wait.
E: Criminals wouldn’t and couldn’t shoot him right now.
F: Professor is a douche.
G: All of the above.
His vagina itches.
Gun free zones don’t keep out those bent on murder. They just keep out those who would protect victims.
Hamermesh’s departure will open up a faculty position. We can hope that it will be filled by someone with the good sense to carry.
Well, good to see that useless administrators will leave on their own accord rather than jack up the system the way that idiot in Oregon did.
Am I the only one that laughed at the hat-tip?
Good catch!
I guess the good Professor wasn’t teaching at UT that day when armed students supported the police in stopping Charles Whitman.
Nah. He was hiding under his desk — in Connecticut.
Actually, he was. He crapped himself so badly he went bald.
Seems to me that if he’s a big enough jerk in the classroom to be afraid for his life he should be afraid to step out of his house because I’m sure he’s a dillweed 24-7
“My guess is somebody thinking about coming to Texas is going to think twice about being a professor here,” Hamermesh said. ”
Oh, *really*?
Professors with carry permits will be glad to work there.
Oh, man.. I just thought about something.
An unexpected flood of professor resumes suddenly pours into the university’s human resources department.
That will completely blow their progressive minds.
They won’t be able to understand why any professor would even want to work at such a dangerous guns-anywhere school.
Their little minds will melt down.
Nonsense. If a student is going to commit “murder” at a school – he’s not going to be concerned about a piece of paper or some law that says no guns allowed. This professor has been living in a complete illusioned safety bubble. Any one of his students could have shot him from a few hundred yards out with a hunting rifle. Wake up and grow a pair.
Or maybe the prof knows all this already and just want communist style culture and legislation.
Hamermesh used to post at Freakonomics blog, tons of his articles there.
His stuff was all very conventional liberal, noteworthy at a supposedly contrarian site.
A few anti gun postings.
Good, glad he is leaving.
This guy does not get it, at all. In most states you have to qualify to carry. That means you are serious enough to spend time doing something that is, face it, a pain in the A$$. Beyond that, you have to be ready to strap on a two pound weight and carry it around. You have to watch for locations where you cannot carry it. You have to be ready to lock it up if you decide to go in.
Someone jumping through all those hoops is not going to be a goof ball sitting in the classroom looking to get even with the Professor. He is going to be the guy who stands up and shoots the madman who was flunked out by the Prof last semester and who wants to get even.
Why don’t these guys get is? It should be plainly obvious to them at this point.
Gee I guess UT will have to do with one less liberal hippie relic from the 60’s. Thank God!
He must not be too scairt if he’s staying until next fall. Now if campus OC becomes official and he up and leaves then and there, well then….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE
Tom
Please do not put down all Economics professors. I had some great ones from all.political persuasions. From strong free marketers straight through to a literal card carrying Communist (and proud of it.) Back then, they were all willing and able to engage in debates with students who didn’t agree with their political philosophies. That’s when we learned. Nowadays could be different.
He should read John Lott’s book “More Guns, Less Crime”. Lott is an Economist that is not afraid of the truth. Goodbye Prof..His leaving will open up a spot for someone who is not afraid to live in the real world. We have way too many of these theoretical nitwits teaching anyway.
With logic like this it is no wonder the economy is a mess.
This is great. Finally, we appear to have hit on an effective way to thin the ranks of our education system (at least a part of it) of those of a liberal bent. Viva la campus carry!
This is just a symptom of the deep rooted narcisissm and self-importance the “notoriety” system that determines who gets published and funding at schools causes. Makes me so annoyed. I am getting a master’s despite all this, but it’s just so so offputting. Ah well. At least the institute I am enrolled in cares about it’s students and not inflating egos. :p
Anywho. My point is this: WHO CARES!? Why do these people think that their leaving is some great loss? They will be replaced. Maybe by someone better. The courses needed to graduate will still get taught, and the law will not really affect the day to days to any appreciable degree.
Golly – just think how Texas will be damaged by he loss of this leading light if he packs up and moves away.
This idjit obviously bought the fallacy that Australia is a paradise where unicorns fart rainbows and poop pepper-jack cheeseburgers ever since their gun ban (aka. gun confiscation) was enacted.
Ha! Won’t he be surprised when Oz’s 40+ percent increase in violent crime catches up with him. And I’m sure when he finds out that Australians rate of gun possession has climbed back to what it was before the gun ban will give him warm fuzzies. LOL
I am not fooled. He is retiring, and he wants to make an anti-2nd amendment statement before he leaves. If he wants to show people he is sincere about this, perhaps he should voluntarily give up his retirement package.
If he leaves, he could gift a lot of students a better education with the empty air in his stead.
That said, it boggles the mind that people truly believe that some disgruntled whackjob will be deterred by a sign.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
Wow, I am speechless, Glad I sent my daughter to OU……………….
UT Economics Professor Emeritus Daniel Hamermesh is a complete moron. Someone, a non student, did come onto campus. Not having guns didn’t stop the shooter you moron. No double standards put the DC politicians on Obamacare and SS.Thanks for your support and vote.Pass the word. mrpresident2016.com
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