Peer Review Pretense

Dean Yeager: Your theories are the worst kind of popular tripe, your methods are sloppy, and your conclusions are highly questionable. You are a poor scientist, Dr Venkman.
Dr Peter Venkman: I see.
--Ghostbusters.

Interesting color on 'peer review' in context of recent concerns at American Economic Review. As noted by the author, AER is the holy grail for publishing in the economics discipline. A hit there goes a long way toward getting an assistant professor to tenure.

People assume that research published in journals like AER has been thoroughly vetted for its scientific validity by unbiased experts.

Bad assumption, as editors and review boards are subject to the same biases and mischief as all people. Prestige of the outlet does not necessarily equate to truth and accuracy.