When an economist does write a book that is woo-woo it gets savaged by other economists. (It may seem like very polite savageing, but for those who know the code the authors are often intellectually ripped to bloody shreds.) Dow 36,000 is an example of a book that was woo-woo and was savaged by other economists. Now this savaging may not stop woo-woo books from selling, but it does let you spot them.

...I keep thinking of the film Trading Places where Eddy Murphy's character (a con man) was an instinctive genius at predicting the market because he read the players, not the cards, so to speak. Most economists seem to scrutinize the cards, what ink they're printed with, the grade of paper and the shape of the Jack's left eye.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Predictions are always difficult. Especially about the future.

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Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.

Excellent summing up, Ivan V.

One big difference between physics and economics is that atoms can't think. As you note, thinking tends to throw a spanner inthe works.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Dow Jones, S&P500 and Nasdaq these three major stock market indexes move in sync with each other, which makes their message clear and the message is not good. Oil has jumped from about 28 dollars to 140 dollars. The accounting books are not good, an increase in government spending can be paid for in one of three ways, we can raise taxes, we can borrow the money, or we can print the money needed to finance the spending, by the end of this year the famous debt clock created by real estate man Seymour Durst is set to break, it will be broken because it will have run out of numbers.

McCain and Obama tax plans are criticized
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedi...0,217480.story
this nonpartisan group implies both candidates are going to inherit a pretty fragile economy



Stocks in the United States tumbled on Monday as financial shares were battered by fears of more turmoil in the credit and housing markets.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/124368b96af8
pain not just in the USA but around the world

Financials, Nippon Steel Stumble In Tokyo
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/...LINE000599.htm