

What Good Are Economists Anyway? - ccarpenterg
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_17/b4128026997269.htm

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Retric
I would like to point out one of the values of economics is to study what the
effects of a policy change would be. "How does increasing the H1B program
change the US economy?" or "How much is the price of heroin changed by drug
policy?"

Granted, some of this seems obvious, but I suspect what's "common knowledge"
is shaped by the field. F=MA seems obvious now, but it is still a new idea.
Ditto the law of supply and demand.

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jonas_b
Economists today are in a way the scientists of the renaissance. Back then it
was the church that couldn't accept the world view of Copernicus and Galilei.
Today it is the politicians that won't accept free trade and long-term fiscal
responsibility. I wonder if the day will come when politicians accept
economics the way they accept gravity?

Disclaimer: I don't really mean to compare economics with the hard sciences,
just the way they are treated.

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chaostheory
As you've hinted there's a reason that economics is treated that way. At this
point, economics simply relies on too many other fields; many of which are
also at their infancy. When you think about it, we're having a hard enough
time predicting stuff like weather; let alone something that is the sum of all
of that and more...

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kiba
Um, some economists really did see the whole market crash coming.

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Empact
I'd love to see a thorough account of who did and did not predict this event.
The most I've seen was Peter Schiff being mocked on cable news for arguing
there would be a bust. Nouriel Roubini correctly predicted this as well. Who
else?

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DTrejo
[http://www.fool.com/investing/dividends-
income/2009/01/09/fo...](http://www.fool.com/investing/dividends-
income/2009/01/09/fool-awards-financial-mind-of-the-year.aspx)

Summary:

# John Paulson

# Nouriel Roubini

# Meredith Whitney

# Nassim Nicholas Taleb

# Peter Schiff

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HSO
John Paulson is not an economist, he got an mba but you don't go to business
school to learn something, you go there to get a passport and connections. Be
that as it may, he is definitely not an economist but a hedge fund investor.

Taleb is something of an anomaly. He is your prototypical anti-economist.
GIven how he rages about economists, I'm surprised to find him on this list.
If someone wants to provoke him, send him this page... ;)

Roubini is an economist but very definitely not mainstream.

The others I don't know.

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anamax
> John Paulson is not an economist

Why does it matter?

Either he's useful or he's not.

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known
It is interesting to know the economists who predicted market crash from the
present Obama administration.

