Even geeks need rock stars. Chris I’m not saying I listen and folow in lockstep to the predictions of all economists but it is a nice temperature guage. The fact that Leamer has changed his tune and that bloomberg couldn’t find anyone to defend housing is indicative of expert sentiment. The market reacts to the experts and the media. I know what the fundamentals are and where they should be but the rest of the people in the country determine the market, not just me. Two years ago my research didn’t jive with market behavior, it took a while for a ship this large to turn around but turn around it did. Now I use economists like these to break things down like the Bush/Paulson plan down for me because I don’t have the time to do it myself. I also watch Inside the NFL, read three or four ESPN colunists and then take what I have seen with my own eyes to for an opinion, yet things happen on Sunday that I didn’t expect nor did any of my sources predict. Yet they watch more film than I do and they can offer insight that I cannot find on my own with a reasonable amount of time that I have for that pursuit. I don’t bet on football but I like the analysis and it improves my experience as a fan. I also am not involved in R/E for a living, I may buy one or two homes, but again I enjoy the analysis.
