Michael Pascoe from October Hahahahahaha

[MrBurns]

BHP and Rio agree, Steve Keen is wrong.
by Michael Pascoe
posted on Oct 23 09:24am

Michael Pascoe - Economists can occasionally be dangerous things when radical or simply wrong ideas fall on fertile ground.
Economists can occasionally be dangerous things when radical or simply wrong ideas fall on fertile ground. Karl Marx, for example, never personally hurt anyone that I know of, but some of his ideas eventually helped cause incredible suffering and death.

Domestically, an associate professor at the University of Western Sydney, Steve Keen, is currently scaring the easily-frightened with especially dire forecasts about the Australian economy. Keen's predictions aren't taken very seriously by most economists, but he's still enjoyed plenty of media attention, much of it unquestioning. Some of my media colleagues are happy to search out the most extreme and alarmist views - they make bigger headlines.

Keen is predicting the economic equivalent of the earth splitting open, spewing forth fire, toads and serpents, the seas turning to blood, the Four Riders of the Apocalypse loping off random heads and limbs and so on. He represents a tiny minority of economic opinion.

(Part of Keen's appeal to populist media is that he has put his unit on the market, claiming housing prices are going to crash. As Rory Robertson, Macquarie Bank's respected interest rate strategist, observed, Keen would have more credibility as a housing forecaster if he had sold his unit last year.)

Journalists can be as dangerous as economists too when they needlessly scare their audiences and perhaps provoke them into doing the wrong thing. I'm writing this on a flight to Perth and have just watched the Channel 9 Inflight News with a couple of prime examples.

(more)

http://au.pfinance.yahoo.com/b/michael-pascoe/105/bhp-and-rio-agree-steve-keen-is-wrong

Well done Michael Pascoe please clear your desk out by lunchtime.

 

[aleckara]

The guy is an eternal optimist and I hate to say it but we Australians tend to be an optimistic bunch "she'll be right mate".

Hence why we are never prepared for anything. Its the reason why a lot of people like articles like this. No one wants to hear bad news.

I don't think bad news is bad though if you prepare for it. Can even be an opportunity.

I hate to say it but reading some of Keen's stuff it seems to make a lot more sense than the economics at university. As an engineer/business student the maths seems to be a lot better at least and has less assumptions.

 

[professor_frink]

Well done Michael Pascoe please clear your desk out by lunchtime.

If a journo had to "clear out his desk" every time they wrote an article that turned out to be incorrect, there would be none left by now

 

[MrBurns]

If a journo had to "clear out his desk" every time they wrote an article that turned out to be incorrect, there would be none left by now

Correct, but this guy was jumping on the "Keen is wrong" bandwagon to make a big man of himself and HE was wrong, reminiscent of the jerks that rubbished Peter Schiff.

 

[Absolutely]

If a journo had to "clear out his desk" every time they wrote an article that turned out to be incorrect, there would be none left by now

I agree with Pascoe. I heard Steve Keen on the radio the other night. The guy almost provokes you to go jump off a cliff now with all his doom and gloom. And I just find it all hard to swallow.

I'm in the market for a house at the moment and would love house prices to come off 40%. I'm renting and the owner keeps throwing up the rent. I would move but there is nothing out there to rent, there is a rental shortage. So there must be thousands like me looking at interest rates coming down, house prices coming off a bit, and rents sky rocketting thinking that this must be the right time to buy. For the foreseeable future I believe I shall have a job too...