03 March 2009

Which "experts" to believe?

There is the "economist" head of state whose investment advice and understanding of the "fundamentals of the economy" make Joe the Plumber appear intelligent by comparison; and there is the man who heads the Bank of Canada who predicts a turnaround beginning in a few short months.

Then there are those like Yanick Desnoyers, assistant chief economist at National Bank Financial in Montreal who says “the prompt responses of [the] Canadian government and the central bank will induce a recovery, provided the U.S. recession doesn't persist.” Who must be compared to the OECD's chief economist Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel who forecasts the global economic downturn will deepen considerably more than even the IMF predicted last month.

Need we remind ourselves that economics is social psychology dressed up to look like hard science?

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