The Age of the Rockstar Economist is (mercifully) Ending
by ilene - April 6th, 2010 12:46 pm
The Age of the Rockstar Economist is (mercifully) Ending
Courtesy of Joshua M Brown, The Reformed Broker
There was a time when every other post on Clusterstock was a synopsis of commentary from a ‘name-brand’ economist.
There was a time when we all shared links to the latest pronouncements from Ivy League econ departments.
There was a time when countdowns were chanted into each PPI or ISM release.
And in the midst of all this armchair econophilia, a short, dark and handsome NYU professor with a name like a famous magician captured our hearts.
It was 2008 – and in our certainty about the lack of certainty, America fell in love with the new breed of Rockstar Economists.
As recently as a year ago, The Great Roubini’s traveling prognostication show was pulling in 6 figures per engagement and publishers were hunting down any theorist with an oddly-colored animal to base a string of predictions on.
Economists were one-downing each other with plummeting targets on a host of surveys and measures in an effort to make Abelson’s column or even earn a trip to Englewood Cliffs for a Squawk Box appearance.
A mythical, beard-stroking wizard named Charles Nenner was regularly appearing on CNBC, making ludicrous statements about his spoon-bending predictive powers with a straight face while the enthralled anchors strained to keep themselves from rubbing his head and making wishes.
The Rockstar Economists were photographed paparazzi-style with their arms around models, chillin’ hard at ski lodges from Aspen to Davos. Their every email missive was blogged and tweeted and re-blogged and re-tweeted. Each TV appearance was dissected and harvested for meme-worthy nuggets and the prophetic visions on which their brands had been built.