The world lost a tremendous voice, one who explained economics clearly and concisely. Dr. Lester Thurow, who served as the dean of the Sloan School of Management (MIT) from 1987 to 1993, died at the age of 77 a few weeks ago (25 March 2016). He served as advisor to presidential candidates (and as a member of the Council of Economic Advisors [CEA] under President LB Johnson)- but was never fully satisfied to serve at that level.

He loved policy formation- but wouldn’t kowtow to the prevailing winds of those in power to serve. (For example, Jimmy Carter didn’t like being told that his policies were not the ones America needed. And, Thurow was right.) Which is why he began publishing books, in addition to his countless academic publications. Oh- he also started the Economic Policy Institute (with four others) to promulgate American economic agenda items.

One of his more famous books was “The Zero-Sum Society: Distribution and the Possiblities for Change”, written some 3 decades ago (1980). His goal – as he told Fortune magazine upon become Sloan School dean- was to make the world better (tikun olam) by explaining that prosperity is possible for all- but only if we recognized that sharing of burdens and benefits was part of the equation.

He spoke about globalization and its effect on American jobs and capital flows to the rest of the world.  By 1996 (in his book, The Future of Capitalism), he was counseling that the income gap, widespread joblessness, and sluggish growth were related phenomena. He spoke about income inequality while the rest of the dismal scientists [the nickname for economics] were positive that this was simply a statistical mismeasurement.

For those who were around when both Drs. Krugman and Thurow were at MIT, their (eventually different) opinions and explanations of events were exhilirating. Thurow did agree that it was the job of goverment to create export advantages for industry- which means the market economy thrives under government control. Krugman changed his beliefs because he objected to government controlling industrial policy- because the government officials fail to conceive of the limits of policy controls.

(By the way, Paul Krugman graduated from Kennedy High School in Bellmore a few years after I left and was awarded his doctorate from MIT in 1977 after graduating from Yale in 1974. Oh, Krugman also seved on the CEA- but under Reagan.)

What really resonated with me was Thurow’s belief that we needed to protect American intellectual capital- or America would keep losing its balance. Because the world has become far more of an idea-based economy that one based upon manufacturing widgets. Oh, sure, we still manufacture widgets, but we value the ideas more than the widgets. (The prices for each tell the story.) He stressed the need for education AND re-education, because training of people needs to be updated as the world’s needs change.

Dr. Thurow was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship (which let him obtain his Masters in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University, following his BS in political economy (Williams College)). Harvard awarded his doctorate in economics (when he was 26), where he remained for two years until MIT’s Sloan School snagged him.

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