What if economists were personally liable for their advice

Generali

I think I might have found something in the Interwebs that both Graham_Devon and HAMISH_MACTAVISH can agree on!

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=16609

Economists have a strange way of writing up briefing documents. There is an advanced capacity to dehumanise economic advice and ignore the most important economic and social problems (unemployment and poverty) in favour of promoting non-issues (like public debt ratios). It reminds me sometimes of how the Nazis who were brutal in the extreme in the execution of their ideology sat around getting portraits of themselves taken with their loving families etc. The training of economists creates an advanced state of separation from human issues and an absence of empathy. Such is the case in a October 21, 2011 document – Greece: Debt Sustainability Analysis – which is labelled STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL by its authors and was intended as input to the upcoming meeting of the Eurozone leaders – which is in fact the EU/ECB/IMF – aka and hereafter referred to as the “Troika”. As I read the document – in all its luridly obscene detail – I wondered what if economists were personally liable for their advice? The jails would be full of bankrupted economists. I am sure that the Troika economists would plead “only following orders” but then we have heard that before too.

(continues)

I can't say I agree with this writer but it's interesting stuff, to me at least.

FTBFun

Godwin's law in the 3rd sentence? Some kind of record surely?

Generali

brokenarrow wrote: »

Ben Bernake would have lost his job long ago, he has been wrong pretty much 100% of the time.

What else should he have done/done differently do you think?

Generali

brokenarrow wrote: »

Not abused/expanded the currency supply so extremely he has killed the dollar there is no saving it now.

The dollar isn't dead, it still buys much the same number of Pounds as it did in the mid-nineties.

FTBFun

Generali wrote: »

What else should he have done/done differently do you think?

Bought silver.

Generali

chucknorris

brokenarrow wrote: »

All currencies are in free fall together its a race to the bottom.

I mean there is no saving the dollar now, its going to die this last QE was QE to infinity, until the dollar is dead.

I think we need a tumbleweed smilie

Conrad

I was looking back at IMF predictions from the last few years. Pretty much always wrong. In early 2008 for example they stated the global Banking issues would likely be offset by falling oil prices and soon return the world economy to norm!


My issue with economists is that they;

1) Tend to be a bit out of touch - for example they won't meet small builders and black cabies that are in fact quite a useful barometer

2) They rely on offical clumsy stats that are always backwards looking

3) They extrapolate in smooth lines from a current scene


4) They pay no attention to subbtle Human change factors, for example they ignored the rise of the green revolution in 1970 which transformed crop yields over night and at a stroke made all thier world famine predictions obsolete (of course quietly forgotten by them)


I say in all seriousness that I have found wiley old self employed builders to be MUCH more reliable when it comes to predicting.
It was people like that in 2005 that would say to me off the cuff that there was no point buying as a big crash was going to happen. How is it these ignoramouses seem always to have thier finger on the pulse? BTW, many of them now tell me things have picked up markedly.

Hoopie1

Generali wrote: »

What if economists were personally liable for their advice?

They'd either issue any advice caveated up to the max or no advice at all?

wymondham

How can anyone predict things when people (aka governments) jump in and mess things up?

thor

Then what is the point of being an economist? If you can't make decent predictions (superior to the man in the street) then would anyone notice if they were all sacked? This profession has been sucking in money from institutions for years despite there being no scientific basis to back up their conclusions.
Surely they cannot believe their luck that they have been getting away with it for so long(a bit like weather forecasters).
They probably would be unemployable for any other job in my opinion.