We economists are a dismal bunch, aren’t we?

[winner69]

Judging by what posters say I would tend to think that they sort of believe what economists and economic commentators come up with.

It seems that many are not all that 'honest' and that self serving biases are prevalent

Equity analysts would be even worse (my view) than those who serve the dismal science.

Quite interesting
http://economics.com.au/?p=10005

We economists are a dismal bunch, aren’t we?

[Hoop]

Q: Why did God create economists?

A: In order to make weather forecasters look good.

[percy]

I think we are lucky in NZ to have The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research who are an independent society.

[winner69]

Q: Why did God create economists?

A: In order to make weather forecasters look good.


Turmeric, a real economist, didn't appreciate that joke when you put it up a few months ago Hoop

Probably was reason he deleted himself

[airedale]

Economist Jokes: Someone once said that if all the economists in the world were laid out end to end, they still wouldn't reach a decision.

[skid]

e''CON''omists

[Goldstein]

A friend used to work for Treasury. He said a lot of the time forecats from agencies such as BERL and Treasury's own forecasts were averaged.

Short term weather forecasting is a well understood physical problem, and one of man's great achievements of the last century has been to construct computer models to do this. Lives and livelihoods are now saved because of these models.

Economic models have to contend with unknowns such as wars, famines, earthquakes, politics, terrorism, plagues, etc. I guess the hope is that these events in some sense average out over time. But sometimes they don't.

[skid]

The most important word I learned in university economy class was --Variables

[kiora]

http://intelligentoptioninvestor.com/uploads/YCharts_Shiller_CAPE_Study.pdf


A friend used to work for Treasury. He said a lot of the time forecats from agencies such as BERL and Treasury's own forecasts were averaged.

Short term weather forecasting is a well understood physical problem, and one of man's great achievements of the last century has been to construct computer models to do this. Lives and livelihoods are now saved because of these models.

Economic models have to contend with unknowns such as wars, famines, earthquakes, politics, terrorism, plagues, etc. I guess the hope is that these events in some sense average out over time. But sometimes they don't.