Looks like N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, is trying to duck following his assertion that U.S. job outsourcing is a “good thing”:
Mankiw, a former Harvard economics professor, said Tuesday he had learned a lesson about the use of language from his missteps last week.
“Economists and noneconomists speak very different languages,” Mankiw said in a speech to an audience of economists.
“Last week, some of the comments I made about the benefits of international trade were far from clear and were misinterpreted,” Mankiw told the National Economists Club.
The problem is that it isn’t merely one of Mankiw’s off-the-cuff comments that’s being “misinterpreted.” The president’s economic report is what’s drawing most fire for the outsourcing commentary.
Note to Mankiw: next time you sign off on a report, make sure it’s written in the correct “language.”