J_White
06-05-2013, 02:29 AM
They're fractious, frequently wrong, and have lost much of the public's faith. But their insights are still valuable -- as long as you don't expect them to predict the future.
Finally, though mainstream economists may not have it all figured out, they are far better than most of the groups who lurk outside the mainstream. For example, spend an afternoon reading the ideas of so-called "Austrian" economists, who believe that we only need logic to understand how the economy works, and that data and evidence are useless. Absurd. But that's the kind of alternative that's out there, and some people really believe that stuff.
Ahem, feel free to post some comments there.
So he is basically saying that even if the economists cannot predict the future - like the housing and financial crisis in 2007/08, or like the coming currency crisis, we should just go on printing money and giving it to few banks. it will eventually work.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/06/should-we-trust-economists/276497/
Finally, though mainstream economists may not have it all figured out, they are far better than most of the groups who lurk outside the mainstream. For example, spend an afternoon reading the ideas of so-called "Austrian" economists, who believe that we only need logic to understand how the economy works, and that data and evidence are useless. Absurd. But that's the kind of alternative that's out there, and some people really believe that stuff.
Ahem, feel free to post some comments there.
So he is basically saying that even if the economists cannot predict the future - like the housing and financial crisis in 2007/08, or like the coming currency crisis, we should just go on printing money and giving it to few banks. it will eventually work.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/06/should-we-trust-economists/276497/