RationalWiki:Articles for deletion/Dean Baker

Dean Baker | Result: Deleted

Dean Baker (edit|talk|history|protect|delete|links|watch|logs) – (View log)

Delete

1. Baker is a literal nobody, I don't think I've heard of him since I was a freshman in college in 2011. He had his 15 minutes of fame when his fanboys said that he predicted the Great Depression. Now, predicting a crisis 6 years before is not even that remarkable, others also said that there was something wrong with the global economy back then (although, granted, a few others, like Rober Lucas, believed that everythign was fine). Additionally, the article seems to have some form of identity crisis: it was, a few years ago, just a puff piece. Now it tries to fight the idea that Baker is in fact a leftist. GeeJayK^{Where all evil dwells} _{Where every lie is true} 12:51, 1 June 2023 (UTC)
2. Away with the puffpiecery. —cosmikdebris ^talk stalk 16:18, 1 June 2023 (UTC)
3. BURN IT! A somebody. (talk) 01:27, 3 June 2023 (UTC)
4. Not much here. Chef Moosolini’s Ristorante Italiano^{Make a Reservation} 18:49, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

Merge/redirect

1. On the surface, I agree with 'Delete'; not that Baker is a nobody nor that it's not missional but more on the pragmatic reasoning that a) WP seems to cover him well enough, b) he hasn't done anything notable which WP could not cover and c) RW has a massive dearth of folks who actually know enough about economics to make this page worthwhile to have. However, I do wonder whether whether it's worth starting up a RW 'Center for Economic and Policy Research' page and redirecting from Baker. I did a look, and there's already four other RW pages which could link to CEPR. Plus, I would say it's more missional to cover think-tanks [if only to detail who funds them etc]. KarmaPolice (talk) 12:22, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

Goat

• I wouldn't say he's a literal nobody. He's got a Wikipedia page: Dean Baker, and he's reasonably missional (globalism, housing bubble, Keynesianism). Bongolian (talk) 00:54, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

• @Bongolian Perhaps it was an exaggeration of me to say that he's a literal nobody, but I can think of hundreds of economists that deserve an article more than him (and now I'm not being hyperbolic). We have articles on economists like Paul Krugman, Milton Friedman and Amartya Sen because they are part of the debate (whether they're correct is another history). We have articles on Karl Marx, Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill because of their historical relevance. We have articles on many Austrian School economists because they are cranks. Baker is none of these things. If you want an evidence of his irrelevance, and how there are hundreds of better names for our Wiki, take a look at the Repec site, that lists the most cited economists [1]. There are thousands of names, including some heterodox economists that I despise, like L. Randall Wray and Ha-Joon Chang, but Baker is not there. GeeJayK^{Where all evil dwells} _{Where every lie is true} 01:10, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

• Notability isn't really a huge concern for the wiki though. As long as it's missional and not just some random guy off the street it's acceptable to have an article on the subject. Sure, there may be more notable economists but that means you should write articles on them rather than deleting this one. Plutocow (talk) 07:09, 3 June 2023 (UTC)