"Having written all that, I must admit that there is some soul searching going on in the economics profession. As obvious as the financial crisis seems after the fact, few economists saw it coming (with some notable exceptions). Virtually none anticipated how severe it might be. In the fall of 2005, several prominent economists wrote in a prestigious journal, “As of the end of 2004, our analysis reveals little evidence of a housing bubble.” Wrong. Actually the article was worse than wrong, because it was written explicitly to refute the signs of a bubble that had become obvious to many laypeople—which is kind of like the fire department showing up at a house with smoke wafting from the roof and declaring, “No, that’s not a fire,” only to have flames start leaping from the attic twenty minutes later. There was a bubble. And it can be explained best by incorporating psychology into economics, namely the tendency of individuals to believe that whatever is happening now is what’s most likely to happen in the future."
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Democratic Party (United States) politiciansAcademics from the United StatesNon-fiction authors from the United StatesPolitical activistsEconomists from the United States
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Charles Wheelan
Charles 'Charlie' J. Wheelan (born 1966) is an American professor, journalist, speaker, and is the founder and co-chairman of Unite America. Wheelan is the author of Naked Statistics, Naked Economics, and Naked Money. He was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate in the special election for Illinois's 5th congressional district, the seat vacated by Rahm Emanuel.
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