NOT.

Stat nerds have never been,
nor will they ever be . . . SEXY.

They serve a purpose on earth
to do the numbers, to invent things,
to do research to make the rest
of our lives easier.

All the while getting even with all those
jocks who bullied them back in school,
those same jocks who are now
fat, bald, and still stupid.

I expected more from the daily beast. Adopting the notion that Paul Krugman is the most radical "left" economist out there merely reproduces a glaring lacuna in the main media hubs. In fact there is a rich tradition of critical economic thinking that views crises as immanent to the structural contradictions within the logic of capital accumulation. Economists like Robert Brenner (UCLA), Historical Economic Sociologists like Giovanni Arrighi (Johns Hopkins), and Geographers like David Harvey (CUNY), have been predicting this crisis for decades. For those interested see: davidharvey.org ; but also check out Arrghi's "The Long Twentieth Century"

All of these guys have commentary on the current crisis that is extremely valuable.

Hot? I don't think so. These are people who have been around since the beginning of time...people who were alive and well, and probably got even better, as the current economic meltdown occurred.

Why didn't you stick in the nerdy, brilliant accountant Harry Markopolos? Here's a guy who did everything he could to warn people about Bernie Madoff. He's even more entertaining than the dweebs on the TDB's 10 Hot Economists, all of whom should be in prison for incompetence (some for incontinence).

re: sophia5

[Stat nerds have never been,
nor will they ever be . . . SEXY.]

You forgot your margin of error! In every hypothesis there is one.

For example there is possibly a 5% chance that you are wrong, or a 10% chance.

Even a possbile 50% chance.

re: koyaanisqatsi
[Why didn't you stick in the nerdy, brilliant accountant Harry Markopolos? ]

Accountants are always ignored. Mr. Markopolos was ignored by SEC for almost 9 years. In my opinion, it was the misuse of accounting that led up to this crisis.

The fact that it took a forensic accountant to blow the whistle proves my point.

How can economic models work, if the economy is being harmed by not just the lack of full disclosure practices but it appears that blatant fraudsters outmatch SEC?

Maybe SEC people are sexier than nerdy accountants and economists. Possibly that is why they were hired to do jobs they appear to not be qualified to do and failed miserably in protecting the public from crooks.

And that, in my opinion is the real news story.

I can just see the headlines now {America goes bust, because SEC has possibly hired more sexy lawyers than geeky looking accountants and economists.}

The earliest economist--defined as specialists who provide economic advice to heads of states, were Roman. They developed their divinations of future economic trends by gutting poultry and reading their entrails.

Just thought you'd like to know.

These guys are sexy like Henry Kissinger was sexy, in the mind of the bloviator.

The REAL question is whether these guys will be out in front when it comes to calling the turnaround. All of the people that were early to the pessimism party are now sexy but that can fade pretty quickly if they stay negative too long. That is the real test of how good these people really are..