There is an effort underway by several liberal economists including Paul Krugman (City University of New York), Maximilian Auffhammer (University of California, Berkeley), and Justin Wolfers (University of Michigan) to have Harald Uhlig, a senior faculty member at the University of Chicago, removed from his position as editor of the world's preeminent economics journal, The Journal of Political Economy.  In addition, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has announced that effective June 12, Uhlig's advisory relationship with the Bank is terminated.

These reactions have been triggered by Uhlig's suggestion that those advocating extreme defunding of our country's police departments could be compared with "flat earthers."  Uhlig's point is that law and order is indispensable for the economic survival of any community.  If professors Krugman and Wolfers cannot agree with this plain fiscal truth, then it is their competence as economists that should be questioned, not Uhlig's.

This attack on Uhlig is one of many that have come in recent months as left-wing activists have successfully secured numerous firings of un-liberal faculty members at universities across the country for viewpoints that the activists deem politically unacceptable.  When one's expression of an economic reality is cause for his dismissal from a position in academia and/or public service, such a politically motivated reaction is a danger to our country's survival.  If we Americans do not maintain our commitment to the protection of the free expression of ideas and perspectives, particularly in the academic arena, we are doomed as a free country.

Harald Uhlig's editorship of The Journal of Political Economy should remain intact, and his position as economic adviser to the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank should be restored.  The apparent politically motivated dismal by the Chicago Fed of Uhlig's valuable economic counsel should not be permitted to stand.  If there was ever a time when our central bank needs valuable insights from brilliant economists like Uhlig, that time is now.