Greetings Economists, On Mar 4, 2007, at 10:39 AM, Jim Devine wrote:
Indeed. No disrespect to Mr. Greenspan, but neither he nor the similarly numerate members of his professional fraternity have a particularly good record of forecasting recessions.
Doyle; All well and good I suppose. As Roubini points out the financial sector does not have any incentive to predict recessions. There are then some conundrums a left might consider. If we can't predict recessions why bother stopping speculation, or real estate speculation like the Savings and Loans debacle on account of the bad affect upon the U.S. economy? All of which would be a part of a socialist project like in Venezuela. Secondly what is to be done? I would not say nothing if I were to consider global warming. I mean literally that systemic analysis ought to lead us to guess at the future in order to prevent catastrophe from over taking us. Thirdly do working people really believe that housing can go up indefinitely and that is right? Fourthly being wrong is not something to avoid as if being always right is attainable. Being wrong is how one learns from mistakes in which mere words do not suffice to change. thanks, Doyle
