Ann Pettifor — If the god Janus were an economist, he would work for the IMF

In our 2010 report, Professor [Victoria] Chick and I warned explicitly and on the basis of a century of publicly available data, that in a slump, fiscal consolidation increases unemployment and cuts private investment. 

An institution with a staffing of about 1100 professional economists (most of whom have PhDs) and an overall personnel budget of about$800 million– failed to make that correct call.

Instead, the IMF now admits that it ‘significantly underestimated’ the impact of public spending cuts on employment and investment.

Getting macroeconomic forecasts and policies wrong has consequences: in the low income countries in the 80s and 90s the consequences of the IMF’s failed policies were bankruptcy and impoverishment for many nations.

Millions of people lost a future – and the opportunity to thrive.

PRIME — Policy Research in Macroeconomics
If the god Janus were an economist, he would work for the IMF
Ann Pettifor | Director

At least Blanchard and Leigh have admitted a problem. The eurocrats? Not so much.

But, even then, Blanchard's explanation is also mistake, as Pettifor explains.

On the two-faced Janus analogy, perhaps the Native American observation, "the white man speaks with forked tongue," is more apt.

See also Paul Krugman, The Big Fall