Economists Tell the Masses: "It Could Have Been Worse"

Dean Baker wrote in Huffington Post this afternoon, in his article Economists Tell the Masses: 'It Could Have Been Worse':

It is amazing that angry mobs have not risen up and chased all the economists out of the country. While the greed of the Wall Street gang provided the fuel for the bubble, the economists played an essential role as enablers.  This was most directly true for economists in policymaking positions, like Alan Greenspan at the Fed.   There are thousands of macroeconomists across the country, in government, academia and private industry who track the economy as a full-time job... [Yet] you can count on your fingers the number of economists who raised warnings about the housing bubble. The rest either did not see it, or didn't think it worth mentioning.Remarkably, no economists seem to have lost their jobs for this failing.
Unlike dishwashers and custodians, economists are not held accountable for the quality of their work.

Mr. Baker, great article. I find your comments absolutely reasonable, and wish that many more people took the time to point out fallacious reasoning that is so potentially misleading.

But the expectation of American to rise up and chase the economists? Maybe the ones on American Idol, if there are any. As a people Americans aren't really active when it comes to chasing after folks who've fooled them, over and over and over again. Or for that matter, chasing anyone else.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost