Is Fear Overcoming Sound Economic Analysis?
Reported by Michelle Hopkins from a presentation by Dr. Edward Leamer, Director of the Anderson Forecast, University of California, Los Angeles for AnalysisOnline through the Thomas R. Brown Foundations Economics Programs Some politicians and news organizations have likened the current financial crisis to the Great Depression while others declare the nation is in the midst of deepening recession. In reality economic indicators that have characterized past recessions are almost entirely absent from the U.S. economy today, let alone depressions, according to the director of the internationally recognized UCLA Anderson Forecast, Dr. Edward Leamer. Leamer believes the almost daily dire assessments by the media, government officials and others are creating a deepening fear in the hearts of people around the world that is unnecessary. If the public can resist altering consumer behaviors and succumbing to these alarms, he says, it may be possible to limit economic problems to the housing sect
