tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post2900866364552373121..comments2024-03-06T06:34:42.881-05:00Comments on EconoSpeak: Greenspan on the futility of Economic ForecastingUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-18521138496923480342007-09-20T17:41:00.000-04:002007-09-20T17:41:00.000-04:00'inner workings of relationships' could be underst...'inner workings of relationships' could be understood as relations among emerging relations within/brought about by the relationships. but that's not what he meant.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-30124482591220884222007-09-20T17:37:00.000-04:002007-09-20T17:37:00.000-04:00Well, of course, Greenspan was long notorious for ...Well, of course, Greenspan was long notorious for in some sense operating with his own very short term, constantly evolving, internal model of the economy, in which every morning he would get up early and pore through various documents and reports on prices and activities around the world, focusing on being smack up to date on all these, favoring such obscuranta as daily pig loadings in Des Moines and oddball spreads in the financial markets (and Andrea Mitchell reports he still wallows in such trivia).<BR/><BR/>He may not have been able to forecast any better with these private indicators, but they did give him power in the one-on-one showdowns that go on in the FOMC and Board of Govs meetings. If somebody disagreed with him, he would outwonk that person with "but did you see what sheet metal loadings in Toledo were this morning?" which of course they hadn't, putting them in an awkward position. "Well, no, but who cares?" was not usually a very effective comeback in those situations.rosserjb@jmu.eduhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09300046915843554101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-48053488838579862332007-09-20T00:08:00.000-04:002007-09-20T00:08:00.000-04:00``come out at the other end as inner workings.''Ma...``come out at the other end as inner workings.''<BR/><BR/>May I assume you intend the alimentary analogy?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-77872710375659812132007-09-19T23:34:00.000-04:002007-09-19T23:34:00.000-04:00draw significant conclusions about how the inner w...<I>draw significant conclusions about how the inner workings of relationships occur</I><BR/><BR/>It's incoherent because it's ungrammatical. Or is it ungrammatical because it's incoherent? What exactly is the <I>difference</I> between a "relationship" and the "inner workings" of that relationship?<BR/><BR/>What he really meant to say is that the model is useful because it enables the economist to launder his/her preconceptions through a gobbledygook apparatus. The relationships the economist entered into the model as assumptions come out at the other end as inner workings.Sandwichmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11159060882083015637noreply@blogger.com