Adam Davidson Strikes Again, Tells Us to Ignore Downer Data and Trust the Confidence Fairy
from Naked Capitalism:
Adam Davidson Strikes Again, Tells Us to Ignore Downer Data and Trust the Confidence Fairy
While Adam Davidsons current New York Times column, How to Make Jobs Disappear refrains from blatant advocacy of the interests of the 1%, his Let Dr. Pangloss explain it approach to economic news is still flattering to the established order. To the extent that anyone in the officialdom pays attention to his work, hes holding up a rosy-colored mirror to their stewardship. And for the rest of us, his relentless see, everything really is fine, now take your Soma denies the reality of the hardships and stresses most ordinary Americans face.
Its hitting the point where Im getting such sharp, annoyed commentary about Davidsons columns by e-mail that I have to work to read his columns with a fresh eye. From one correspondent:
Can we make Adam Davidson disappear? He seems to have carved out a special niche: Stupid-nomics. WTF is his point here? That Adam Davidson is an oh-so-reasonable-guy-who-just-wants-the-silly-competing-economic-theories-to-get-along so we can all feel good? That jobs would magically appear if we would just stop paying attention to them?
His articles seem to be an experiment how somebody with either innate or willful ignorance of macroeconomics but a superficial curiosity coupled with a desire preserve his jeopardize his paycheck would view economic questions. His assumptions i.e. if Greece could just pay off those debts and sell some good stuff all would be well are so wildly simplistic and wrong-headed that its hard to go on to the next sentence, because you know youre heading down a path led by somebody who is blind. And you smack your head against the wall. Where is the aspirin?
If you havent encountered Davidsons latest offering, he starts with the claim that the monthly nonfarm payrolls release has become a key (his breathlessness implies THE) indicator of economic performance, and is now driving hiring decisions. Davidson tells us this is terrible because actually knowing roughly how many jobs are being added when the results arent great frightens employers into not adding them and consumers into not spending.
......(snip)......
The next leg of Davidsons argument is even nuttier. Businesses arent hiring and consumers are being scared from spending as much by the big bad NPF release! That old NPF release is SOOO unreliable anyhow, wouldnt it be better if we just ignored it and went out and shopped, and left this all to technocrats whod be cool headed enough to look at longer term trends? ..............(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/06/adam-davidson-strikes-again-tells-us-to-ignore-downer-data-and-trust-the-confidence-fairy.html