Greg Mankiw's critique of ObamaCare is everything wrong with conservative thinking

In invoking the Hippocratic Oath, the conservative economist unwittingly points out the GOP's big problem on health care

Doctors
(Image credit: (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images))

On Sunday, former Bush administration economist Greg Mankiw wrote in The New York Times that economists should adopt medicine's Hippocratic Oath and draft policy prescriptions that first and foremost "do no harm":

In some ways, economics is like medicine two centuries ago. If you were ill at the beginning of the 19th century, a physician was your best bet, but his knowledge was so rudimentary that his remedies could easily make things worse rather than better. And so it is with economics today. That is why we economists should be sure to apply the principle "first, do no harm."

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John Aziz is the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate editor at Pieria.co.uk. Previously his work has appeared on Business Insider, Zero Hedge, and Noahpinion.