At 08:16 PM 1/15/2004 -0800 Doug Pensinger wrote: >I'll also state for the record that, while we all make mistakes, Dan's >data is usually pretty solid, and I can remember a few instances when he >was mistaken and owned up to it. I don't think "fast-and-loose" describes >his use of facts at all.
While this may be true in physics, I haven't found that to be so in economics. In particular, Dan has been fond of declaring that "economics is not a sciece" - largely on his critique that economics cannot produce useful prediction. Yet, this never seems to stop him from using economic data to make predictions that "Republicans are horrible for the country in that the produce X effect." Well, you can't have it both ways. You can't continually insist that economis is not a science and does not produce useful predictions, and then insist that it predicts that Republicans are just awful. In addition, many of these predictions play fast and loose with the data. One of the classic ones is to assign the economic peformance of the country in 1980, when Jimmy Carter was President, to Ronald Reagan - never minding that Ronald Reagan's economic policies really couldn't have taken much effect until 1982 at a minimum. This is an egregious and repeated error, which I just simply find to be inexplicable. Likewise, he never connects his analysis to policies, such as, for insistance taking account of the fact that George H. W. Bush raised taxes or that the recession of '81-'82, which was produced in large part by Paul Volcker, is widely considered to have been absolutely necessary for the long-term health of the economy. Lastly, while making these mistakes once might be understandable, they have instead been repeated time and time again.... and so sometimes i just let my frustration show a little bit too much. And for that I apologize.. JDG _______________________________________________________ John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity." - George W. Bush 1/29/03 _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l