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Fed Economist: Bloggers are Stupid
A Richmond Va. Federal Reserve Economist, Kartik Athreya wrote a paper
recently that trashes economic bloggers. Mr. Artheya has a PhD from the
University of Iowa. I’m not so sure a few years in corn land gives him
the right to take cheap shots at the new media. I am absolutely
convinced that this type of thinking should not be expressed by Fed
officials. It proves to me that the Fed is an elitist organization that
is out of touch with America in 2010. The full report from Athreya is here.
Some of the more offending comments:
Writers
who have not taken a year of PhD coursework in a decent economics
department (and passed their PhD qualifying exams), cannot meaningfully
advance the discussion on economic policy.
So we have to go
to school for two years to be able to write about the issues of the day.
That would exclude me and a lot of others. The fact that I worked on
Walls street for 30 years does not qualify me to say a word.
The
response of the untrained to the crisis has been even more startling. I
listen to Elizabeth Warren on the radio fearlessly speculating about the
nature of credit market dysfunction, and so on.
Taking on
Elizabeth Warren is a big mistake Mr. Arthreya. You will regret this
choice of words.
The real issue is that there is extremely low likelihood that the
speculations of the untrained, on a topic almost pathologically riddled
by dynamic considerations and feedback effects, will offer anything new.
Moreover, there is a substantial likelihood that it will instead offer
something incoherent or misleading.
Everything that
comes from the Federal Reserve is incoherent and misleading.
The
sophomoric musings of auto-didact or non-didact bloggers or writers is
instructive. For those who want to really know what the best that
economics has to offer is, you must look here.
The only
people you should listen to is Federal Reserve economists? I take a
different view. The last people you should trust in this matter is FRB
economists.
The
general public are simply being had by the bulk of the economic blogging
crowd.
The general public is being had. But
not by the bloggers. They are being had by the folks who make the
choices for us at the FRB.
The
views expressed are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of
the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, or Federal Reserve System.
Actually
the views expressed are a perfect representation of the mind set at the
FRB. Narrow minded, elitist and just plain wrong.
I would suggest that Mr. Arthreya do some additional research. He should
look up the word “hubris” (extreme haughtiness or arrogance).
After he understands that concept he should write an apology, that or
he should resign from the FRB.
»
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Right as Rain as Evidenced by the Proven Number of Fed Economists Predicting the Great Financial Crisis. Zero.
Well shit, whadda we think he's gonna say?
That all the Board of Governors goota do is fire the Research Staff and read more blogs? Or would that be too self serving?
The quote attributed to Orwell says it all.
"Some ideas are so foolish that only an intellectual could believe them, for no ordinary man could be such a fool."
Years of Phd study by a vast number of economists has led them to the conclusion that the government should just run the printing press and buy up worthless assets. And to the extent that the bloggers are humans who perceive the economy in human terms, even the stupid ones may be superior to the Phds who view people as just another line of data fed into a failed statistical model.
Don't forget the Phds, from LTCM on to today, who built mathematical models that exploded in their faces.
The ideas currently en vogue on university campuses and in the halls of government have failed. The elite want to turn this into an elite/anti-elite debate because if it is about ideas, they might find themselves replaced. Their not actually worried that Tea Partiers will throw out all the elites, they're really worried that they might decide that the outsiders who study Mises, Hayek and Minsky will take their sinecures.
comments like this from the FED just show the utter contempt they have for the citizens thay are meant to be serving. Investors are forced onto financial blogs as the only way to get an objective veiw on whats really going on out there. Yes, alot of the stuff on financial blogs is utter rubbish but no moe so than that being spewed out by FED, SEC, treasury, MSM and big broking firms.
The way i see it having a PhD is more of a liability than asset these days as students are indoctrinated in to the dilusional fantasy land of fairy tales and hypocrisy that has driven the worlds economy to the bronk of collapse.
Keep up the good work ZH. investors who live in the real world depend on sites like yours.
Name one major party other than the Republicans where you have even a shot at winning the primary if you aren't a socialist. It's not that Tea Partiers adore Mitch McConnell and Michael Steele, it's that taking over the Republican Party is more likely than taking over the Democrats. Same reason the hard left took over the Democrats in the 1960s--socialist egalitarians weren't exactly going to make any headway in the GOP.
That the Tea Party is Republican, is like suggesting the President is not a Socialist
Dont call that banker-ass-licker a socialist! I am so amazed that noone on this blog has any idea about what socialism is: SOCIALISM IS THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE WORKING CLASS, NOT THE RENTIER CLASS!!!
O.K.,
tell that to the Russians who lived through it...
, Using your logic, capitalism and free markets is much worse, as I see everyone here whining about U.S.
I can hear you saying "but but this is not free markets"
Then I'll say "but Russia was not socialism"
So Lets decide what we are going to compare: What it is or what it should be?
I am the one and I'm telling you, whoever they are, they are not socialist.
How about retarded incompetent douche bags.
I'm given up trying to determine left or right anymore. It's like picking a flavor of nacho chips while drinking. Doesn't matter what flavor you choose, after a couple of beer all nachos taste like "nacho".
Welcome to the corporatist state, aka fascism.
American public politics don't offer real choice between right and left, that's why it's so hard to tell the difference. Whenever you have a merger between right and left like that, you have to look for some clues in history.
The "beauty" of creating hard line and highly vitriolic political divisions within a country are that the political party constituents are so busy going after each others throats that they let the real criminals get away and destroy the nation for the political purposes of stateless economic/monetary entities such as the WTO, IMF, Federal Reserve and World Bank.
Exactly.
It's a distraction game of narrow choices. On a scale of 1 to 10, one party is 5 and the other party is 5.3
Big difference. One part, two factions within the same party.
Both parties are really just about self promulgation. Neither stands for anything else anymore.
I guess I'll jump in here as well. The water is fine.
I've never been registered as a Republican, but since there is no viable alternative I'll cast my lot with the Tea Party folks.
Rocky,
In my opinion the Tea Party is comprised of "real" liberals, republicans, independents and libertarians.
The republicans would LOVE to co-opt the "Party". It ain't happenin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHD0ZdhtmSQ
The waters fine ;-)
You have a perfect track record on this blog. Of being wrong all the time.
'Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life son'.
What if it's a lifestyle choice?
They'll pry the tall boy of coors from my cold dead beer hat if I have my way.
but it sure is fun to be drunk once in a while and act stupid :)
Go ahead and suck that leftist koolaid down...
Participated in the start up of a tea party in a capital city and can assure you that both parties got slammed.
You must be some sort of Obamabot here to push bullshit.
me
and I would never dismiss and disparage a democrat with a sophomoric, rude, and vulgar term that implies they drag their nuts on their buddies chin.
Just so all the old folks, and decent folks are on the same page as the smarmy insiders. you are so GD clever:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=teabag
Me.
+1