For reasons that probably should not be delved into deeply, Ricketts spent the weekend rereading a Ben Stein column from Dec. 2, 2007, "The Long and Short of It at Goldman Sachs." At the time, Felix Salmon, Dean Baker, and Yves Smith all conducted exhilarating displays of Stein-demolition, so it might seem like I am coming late to the party.Oh there are so many issues in that article...
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To be fair, the vast majority of economists failed to predict how the housing bust/subprime meltdown would set off a cascade that incited the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. But I dare say few got it wrong with such a tour-de-force of willful arrogance as Ben Stein.
[ cf New York TImes Crashed-and-Burned Watch (This Week in Journamalism Department) ]
Like WHY would one go back to look at Older Ben Stein articles, as if they were a part of some, uh, Intelligent Design, that was not evolving...