Debate: Will Obama win in 2012?
Side: No

Well in your initial agument it certainly seems as though you are attacking economists in general. Perhaps you could try being more clear in the future.Or perhaps you could be a little more discerning about word usage, particularly when it is my argument you are considering.All US economists are conservative ideologues...You misuse the term "conservative" to mean "believer in free markets". This is misleading because liberals also believe in free markets. It's only a question of the degree of government oversight that should exist. You won't find many purists at either end of the spectrum.Conservative: in favor of preserving the status quo and traditional values and customs, and against abrupt change. Ideologues: a particularly zealous or doctrinaire supporter of an ideology.All US economists are conservative ideologues; regardless of whether or not they are democrats, republicans, or independents etc.My argument is about economists not politicians. I described attributes of all economists, none of which are political. (If you mean the conservative political party, then communicate what you mean, for I can only understand what you mean by what you state. And if what you state is not what you mean then choose words that communicate the meaning of what you’re thinking.)Finally, the track record of the consensus opinion of economists is so poor...the track records of the maverick economists are more in-tune with reality though.Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Thus far you have presented none.Finally, we get to the core problem of your viewpoint. You’ve not researched the opinions of other economists whose opinions are not the consensus. Case in point, Nouriel Roubini, one of many economists who predicted the current economic mess, did so in 2006. Nor was he the only economist who predicted today’s crisis. But, it is self-evident to me that you failed to do your own research, and then as a consequence you find that my assertion, ”the track records of the maverick economists are more in-tune with reality though.”, is an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary evidence. What is extraordinary is the fact that you are blinded by your own biased viewpoint, so much so that you presumed there is no evidence to contradict your viewpoint and therefore there is no reason to consider a contrary or contradictory viewpoint of the consensus opinion of economists. However, if you do find it within yourself to challenge your viewpoint, you will find that there were many Economists who predicted the crisis. And you will find that the consensus of economists was predicting good times. Moreover, the economists who were predicting good-times were mocking and laughing at economists such as Dr. Doom. . Yes, it's clear that most economists fucked up in the case of the current recession. How many times do we have to go over this? The future is hard to predict. The best we can do is make educated guesses. Why is that concept so hard for you to grasp? We can't predict the weather with 100% certainty, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.You must stop with the straw-man arguments with me. I am being as polite as I can be, but you are testing my limits of politeness. We both know that the consensus of economists missed the current ‘great recession’ , but what you fail to recognize is that there are some economists who did predict this recession. Not only did they predict the recession, their opinions were not the consensus. Albeit, your refusal to research the opinions of maverick economists indicates to me that you deny that there are indeed economists who predicted this recession. Furthermore, you take it to the extreme of being extraordinary, both in claim and evidence. If you find the above to be obscure in terminology, consider the following illustration.You can’t call my evidence extraordinary when you fail to even go look for contrary evidence before assuming a valid viewpoint. I could continue with this rebuttal, but I think you realize the error in your argument.