February 17, 2011
The NYT ran an article discussing disagreements between Republicans and Democrats over the merits of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission’s report. At one point it quoted Bill Thomas, the Republican vice-chair of the commission, citing Warren Buffet as saying that no one saw the housing bubble.
Mr. Buffet was clearly wrong in this assertion. Some economists very clearly saw the housing bubble. Given the extraordinary departure of house prices from their long-term trend, with no basis in the fundamentals of the market, it is amazing that all economists did not see the bubble. It is even more amazing that no economists seem to have suffered any consequences to their careers from the incredible failure.
The article should have pointed out that Mr. Buffet was wrong and therefore Thomas should not have relied on his statement in making his assessment of the report.
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