The Economics Section - Page A4
WHY AMERICANS CAN'T TRUST PRESIDENT CLINTON'S ECONOMIC FORECASTS!
by Staff Economics Writers, The Daily Republican Newspaper
WASHINGTON DESK - The Clinton White House has issued a large number of economic forecasts over the past four years. This week he is attempting to use his forecasts as a justification for his re-election bid. But, what is the reliability of any Clinton economic forecast three months, a year, a couple of years, or five years from today?
Economics forecasts coming out of the White House deal with what the president depicts as 'the Nation's economic health'. The president and the first lady both speak in such metaphors. Neither is an economist. Both are lawyers. Neither is a medical doctor. To speak of economic forecasts in terms of the Nation's health instead of the Nation's wealth is a deliberate attempt to mislead. This trait is characteristic of dishonest minds.
President Clinton's use of the 'health' metaphor is an obvious admission that he lacks confidence in his own economic projections. He relies on rhetoric as a tool of political persuasion. Historians of the Nazi Third Reich have called this technique by its proper name - propaganda.
Economics is not a science. No economist can will claim that it is scientific, nor that it utilizes scientific standards of reliability!
The Clinton forecasts are un-supported claims od opinion. As such, the president and the first lady both use the medical metaphor to gain standing with and unsuspecting American public. No wonder Americans are 'turning-off' and 'tuning-out' the Clinton re-election campaign rhetoric.
There's a very good reason why the Clinton White House doesn't want Americans to know anything about economics. When you examine the Table on this page you will note that the chances of making an accurate economic forecast about the fiscal condition of, say the Social Security System and Medicare, for five years into the future are 1 in 100 billion.
The statistical probability of president Clinton achieving the results he promises from his economic plan are so remote they are not within the real of reasonable possibility!
What do you think the chances are for a lawyer and his wife who are both politicians in having any better luck?
Would the Clinton White House make its economic forecast to the year 2000 the foundation of its re-election campaign if they thought the American people would figure that out before November 5, 1996?
Economic forecasts were studied in ancient Egypt over 4,500 years ago. The ability to make reliable forecasts has not improved since then. No, not even after thousands of years of cultural and business experience.
Herodotus(484-425 B.C.),in his 'Researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus' wrote that the ancient kingdom of the Egyptians had discovered an art form they called prognostics. The modern counterpart of ancient prognostics is the Clinton White House metaphoric practice called an economic forecast.
The ancient Egyptians used prognostics and the entrails of owls to guide them in municipal and national government planning. The also used astrology in order to practice prognostic forecasts in the affairs of human beings. The current residents of the White House would not want to associate their prognostications on the future of the American economy with astrology.
The first lady, however, has confessed after public accusations were made, that she has been consulting a nether-world medium who assisted her in communicating with the spirit world. The need for the medium, said the first lady, was to help the Clinton White House in managing the affairs of the United States.
The Clintons have more faith in astrologers than they have in the American people. When the American people are betrayed by their president, the people perish.
Reference for further reading:
- Blaug, Mark, The Methodology of Economics - Or How Economists Explain, 2d ed., Cambridge University Press, U.K.,1992.
- Encyclopedia Britannica,Economics, pp. 925-927 14th ed., London, 1928.
- McClosky, Donald N., The Rhetoric of Economics,University of Wisconsin Press, Madison,1985.
- Rawlinson, George, trans. The History of Herodutus, Book II, pps. 107-117, Tudor Publishing Company, New York, 1928.