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Are Economists Witch Doctors?

Where is $200 a barrel oil?  How many other predictions were false?  How many forecasts by "experts" were false?  False, false, false!Who here knows anything about cold reading?  James Randi describes it here.  Cold reading works because people don't remember wrong guesses - only right ones.  So a fraudster like John Edward can make it seem like he's reading your mind or talking to the dead.  Even when he's just guessing.How many economists are more than cold readers?  The same guys who forecasted $200 oil keep forecasting and predicting away.  And we (well, not me) suck up everything they say.  Because they are experts!Right?They are experts in the same way John Edward is a psychic.  We are in a huge crisis that almost no expert predicted.  Even Roubini did nothing other than make doomsday predictions that finally came true (as doomsday predictions always do)...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime & Federalism on November 13, 2008 (boomark / email).