Comments on: Guest Voice: Should Economists Set Economic Policy? http://themoderatevoice.com/17655/guest-voice-should-economists-set-economic-policy/ An Internet hub for moderates, centrists, and independents, with domestic and international news, analysis, original reporting, and popular features from the left, center, and right Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:29:43 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Slamfu http://themoderatevoice.com/17655/guest-voice-should-economists-set-economic-policy/comment-page-1/#comment-140826 Slamfu Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:49:17 +0000 http://themoderatevoice.com/at-tmv/guest-contributor/17655/guest-voice-should-economists-set-economic-policy/#comment-140826 Yes, economists should set economic policy. The only reason economists appear to be changing their tunes suddenly is because media outlets ask different ecnomists for their opinion. And the growth listed is decent growth. The fact its not being distributed where we'd like it is another issue entirely and one I'm sure you'd find yourself in agreement on with just about any economist you asked. <br><br>Economists can't predict that banks are going to start making millions of unsafe loans suddenly, or that financial institutions would sink billions in hedge funds on those same transactions. Its hard to prepare for stupid. Yes, economists should set economic policy. The only reason economists appear to be changing their tunes suddenly is because media outlets ask different ecnomists for their opinion. And the growth listed is decent growth. The fact its not being distributed where we'd like it is another issue entirely and one I'm sure you'd find yourself in agreement on with just about any economist you asked.

Economists can't predict that banks are going to start making millions of unsafe loans suddenly, or that financial institutions would sink billions in hedge funds on those same transactions. Its hard to prepare for stupid.

]]> By: yetanothermoderatevoice http://themoderatevoice.com/17655/guest-voice-should-economists-set-economic-policy/comment-page-1/#comment-140825 yetanothermoderatevoice Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:44:42 +0000 http://themoderatevoice.com/at-tmv/guest-contributor/17655/guest-voice-should-economists-set-economic-policy/#comment-140825 These are good questions to be sure, but to be fair, many economists do give them serious thought - and some have excellent blogs - particularly James Hamilton, Brad deLong, Mark Thoma etc. For example:<br><br><a href="http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2007/10/does_a_recessio.html">http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2007/10/doe...</a><br><br>Another problem is the quality of reporting. If an article gives nominal gdp growth as opposed to real median wage growth, well then you get what you pay for.<br><br>Regarding inflation, the problem is that no one definition of inflation is perfect (and that is true of employment as well), nor are the data or data collection processes behind these numbers. It's not as if economists don't think about this and try to improve it over time ...<br><br>Just my two cents (sic). These are good questions to be sure, but to be fair, many economists do give them serious thought – and some have excellent blogs – particularly James Hamilton, Brad deLong, Mark Thoma etc. For example:

http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2007/10/doe...

Another problem is the quality of reporting. If an article gives nominal gdp growth as opposed to real median wage growth, well then you get what you pay for.

Regarding inflation, the problem is that no one definition of inflation is perfect (and that is true of employment as well), nor are the data or data collection processes behind these numbers. It's not as if economists don't think about this and try to improve it over time …

Just my two cents (sic).

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