In response to the dust up at the AER I received this from Harvey Dent (aka "Two-Face") via twitter (cc'd to media/blog economics types):
@johnwhitehead81 deserves praise. Only academic economist to voice opinion
My response:
Really? I guess I have nothing to lose.
As Nicholas Bourbaki says in his/their anonymous comment on the AER paper, there is a fear of retaliation from the "editors at AER and other members of their networks." See #4 from the paper:
What in the world is going on? Is economics research such that all of the cloak and dagger is necessary? I can only guess that the answer may be yes.
Updated with clarification: Another comment by the non-anonymous Brett Matsumoto at the BLS has been submitted to the AER. This comment considers only technical issues and not accusations of misconduct.
