New School Politics

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According to a CNN/Opinion Research poll this week 57% of Americans believe we are currently in a recession. But, of course, we are not actually in a recession as a recession would connotate at least one (by most definitions, two) quarter of negative economic growth. This is another example of the economic illiteracy of the general public.

Bryan Caplan, a professor of econ at GMU, talks a lot about this, including in his recent book. Remember these Americans are the very ones who will be going to the polls very soon to vote for the next leader of the free world and decide future economic policy. The dichotomy between economic wisdom and conventional wisdom can at times be stark, which is why the policies of democracies and majorities can often be unwise.

Last 5 posts by Ryan

• Scarcity, Shmarcity - June 26th, 2008
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The If we all think there is a recession, is there a recession? by New School Politics, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.