The race to correctly predict the next financial crisis has been running since, well, ever since we mostly missed the last one.
It’s regarded, rightly I think, as a failure of the economics, analyst and journalism communities that the crash of 2007 wasn’t more widely foreseen.
Some had a good crash (the list of people claiming to have foreseen it has gotten longer by the year).
American economist Dean Baker in particular was warning about a housing bubble for years before it exploded.
I think for hacks the temptation has been to report any signs of potential disaster as if they were the next big one, just to cover ourselves.
There’s a certain sort of commentator who has predicted all 50 of the last four recessions. This is a bad look.
I think where flaks and their clients can do well here is by saving us from ourselves.
It would be good to start seeing some expert commentary explaining why there isn’t going to be a crash any time soon, why Brexit won’t cost us a penny, why shares are cheap, why everything will be fine.
Doom sells. It gets tiresome though.
