Friday, December 05, 2008

Economists' hands

The average economist is famous for waffling about his predictions. "On the one hand, I think the recession will be a short one. On the other hand, if industrial output goes down for another four quarters we can call it a depression. On another hand, with dramatic intervention we should be able to prevent a depression..."

Now, if you were counting, that's three hands. Which says there's something unusual about economists...

-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

7 comments:

  1. bush has three hands, and three brain cells. of which laura took two

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  2. What is the sound of the other hand clapping in the forest?

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. Why is your site slow to load on my fast connection?

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  5. Well, that is certainly disturbing. Recalling back to the economic ups and downs of previous eras it seemed like you could find some prominent economists to cite for any point of view you might hold. Light at the end of the tunnel or said light is an oncoming train or anything in between. Nowadays, due to some kind of genetic engineering you only need a single economist for all that, I guess.

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  6. Must be Moties.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moties#Moties

    Great scifi, IMO

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  7. Spider, Jerry Pournelle might be a flamin' asshole of the first order, something which I've personally verified via his behavior at a SF con a couple of decades ago, and apparently Larry Niven isn't much less of an asshole, but he and Larry Niven can write good shit when they try. Or terrible-ass shit when they're just going through the motions. But The Mote in God's Eye was one of their better efforts for sure.

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