What Exactly Does It Take To Be An Economic Expert?

In class we watched the Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer clip, and discussed financial reporting in the media. It seems like that it's too often that these economic experts are pretty far off. Do they just not want to report bad news? The picture is often painted as everything is ok or it's getting better. It seems like people continually take Ben Bernake's word on the status of the economy, but why trust a man who is continually wrong? He will give reports saying the economy is getting better when obviously the situation is no better off than before. Also, you got to love when the president has given interviews at the beginning of the month saying that they created however many jobs in the previous month, but the unemployment has risen. Do people really not realize this? Then there are the people that are on TV, such as Cramer, who give predictions and report on the economic and financial systems. Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, and all the other channels have shows  and "expert" guests that are on everyday dedicated to this. I understand nobody is perfect, but do the majority of these people really not get it or understand what has, is happening, and going to happen at all. It seems like when someone speaks against the optimism that is being discussed they get criticized and are said to be preaching doom and gloom. Why is that a bad thing? I understand people don't enjoy bad news. However, would you not want to be told that you have cancer then go on living as if everything was going to be alright because you don't think anything bad could ever happen to you.

When we started talking about this in class there was one person and some videos that came to mind. That was Peter Schiff who correctly predicted back in 2006 and 2007 that the country was headed for a massive economic recession, but was continually laughed and scolded at for saying that the fundamentals of the economy were not sound. Why are people like this and their ideas not given more credit? It's not like he never gave reasons for this thought process either. He also ran for U.S. Senate in Connecticut this year, but lost in the primary to millionaire WWE CEO Linda McMahon because she was basically able to buy the election by spending millions on it. Whereas, Peter Schiff had less financial support and not the same name recognition, and there was also former Connecticut Congressman in the running. It seems as though there was a real lack of investigation of the candidates by voters in this race. You can watch the video below and develop your own opinion, but I want people like this in D.C. fighting for Americans. You got to love how he proves one of Reagan's former top economic advisers wrong. Then there was when a panel of Fox News economic experts are asked what stocks to invest in and they all suggest to invest in businesses that collapsed and were at the head of the crisis when all of it really started to unravel, but Schiff suggested that people should have stayed away from stock market. He suggested that people should have invested in gold because he thought that it would go above $1,000/ounce; this was when it was under $90/oz. To say the least he could not have been more right. I encourage you to take the time and watch the video because it really is fascinating.






He was also on The Daily Show if that helps legitimize him. 

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