Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Two economists, an editor, and a boring town

Regret the Error is a blog about newspaper corrections, retractions etc. Here's an example my English friends might enjoy. From The West Australian via RtE:


Deep depression: Our economics editor has officially gone from recession to depression.

By mangling the names of two of history’s most highly decorated economists, John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman, we not only created an economy of truth but blamed poor Milton Keynes for having “crazy” ideas (We can all learn from Depression, Opinion, page 21, September 29).

Milton Keynes is an English town famous not only for its grid system of roads and its herd of concrete cows but because in 1998 it was deemed so boring that even chartered accountants refused to move there. The “crazy” ideas comment was intended for John Maynard Keynes, who was voted one of Time Magazine’s most important people of the 20th century - and who was not boring.