Commentary by Roger Erickson
Ask A Dumb Question ... And Does It Matter What The Answer Is?
Moment of Truthiness
" ... we asked whether the [fiat] deficit has gone up or down since January 2010, .."
I'm picking my jaw up off the floor. The sad part is that even these supposed luminaries - Christopher Achen, Larry Bartels, Paul Krugman & Google's Chief Economist Hal Varian - all persisted in asking an absolutely irrelevant, meaningless, and yes, dumb, question.
Why even ask about a deficit in fiat, 80 years after we changed from a gold-std to a fiat currency std? What on earth does a deficit in fiat even mean?!!!
BMHOTK! At this point I throw up my hands and say the entire economics profession is part of the problem, not part of any possible solution. Probably the political science profession too.
I don't see any difference in voter's response to a dumb question, and Krugman's action in asking it. What the hell was he thinking? Nothing relevant to a solution path, that's for damn sure.
Why not ask voters if there's any pragmatic person left in the country, who could return us to the sanity that prevailed under Marriner Eccles? At least that has some connection to real context.
Until then, as Walter Shewhart said, "Without context, data is meaningless." Ditto for economists and political scientists.
Is there a Nobel Prize for meaningless, Ness?
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