October 11, 2009
Britain's Central Planning Death Panels
October 11, 2009
Free Market M.D.
October 11, 2009
Economies of Scale in Compliance
October 11, 2009
Balan's Challenge
October 10, 2009
The Pleasure of Telling Others What to Do
October 10, 2009
Gonick the Great - and How He Could Have Been Greater
October 9, 2009
More Scott Sumner
October 9, 2009
Not From The Onion
October 9, 2009
Thoughts on a Second Stimulus
Not a chance. A person, even a financial prophet, who says "Do nothing" is not newsworthy.
Well Ron Paul and Peter Schiff (and many other Austrians) predicted it and generally receive airtime (Paul and Schiff, not really anyone else). But they generally haven't pointed out specifics, like the stock market will fall -30% this year and been right. They take a longer view. Roubini is more inclined to give statistics.
Schiff also doesn't get half the credibility that Roubini or Taleb get. And they really don't get that much.
I imagine people who are proven right in one area have always been deemed fonts of wisdom on many fronts. I guess it's in our nature to ascribe false intellect and foresight to the successful and to go to these people to ask the way forward. This problem is surely compounded by the fact that many of these individuals believe they have know more than they do (false confidence).
ps - But to answer your question, yes Mr Caplan, they will listen to you for a while, but people demand 'ACTION'. They want to be saved, not to save themselves.
Schiff may have correctly foreseen the American bubble, but completely missed the fact that foreign markets would also bust, instead of decoupling from the US economy as he predicted. His clients are feeling as much pain as US investors, if not more.