[Air-l] email inflation?

[geert lovink]

www.nytimes.com/2003/03/16/business/yourmoney/16VIEW.html
March 16, 2003
Grading Bush on Prosperity and Pain
By DANIEL ALTMAN

> An informal survey of economists, which I conducted last week by
> e-mail, asked, "To what degree is the Bush administration responsible
> (in the sense of bearing credit or blame) for the current state of the
> economy?"
>
> Answers were sought from 20 well-known Wall Street economists from
> different companies and 125 academics specializing in macroeconomics.
> The academic group included R. Glenn Hubbard, the chairman of the
> president's Council of Economic Advisers, and his nominated successor,
> N. Gregory Mankiw of Harvard. Neither responded. Among those who did
> was Martin S. Feldstein, a Harvard professor who held the post in the
> early 1980's.
>
> The economists were encouraged to pick from a five-point scale, ranging
> from "not at all" to "completely," and to offer additional comments.
> The academics, of whom 57 responded, averaged 2.3 — between "a little
> bit" and "a fair amount." The average from the 11 Wall Street
> economists who wrote back was lower, at 1.9.

Interesting to see the inflation. Only half responded. What to make of it?

Geert