Mark Perry's Accuracy

Mark Perry is a visiting scholar at the right wing American Enterprise Institute. He's Professor of Economics at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan, but presently on sabbatical. He's generally optimistic about the present state of the US economy. Here are some of his thoughts on the state of the economy just prior to the stock market crash in 2008.

July 02,2008. Don't compare us to the Depression. Things are looking great.

July 03, 2008. Cheer up. Look how great household wealth looks. It's a story you don't hear from our "disaster sells" media.

July 06, 2008. Things are looking great. It takes less work to buy food. People are working less. (I'm not sure where he gets this stuff. It's true that people spend less on food, but not on other fixed expenses. Family working hours are up a shocking 700 hours for the median two parent family since 1975).

July 09, 2008. People are way too pessimistic.

July 11, 2008. Subprime losses aren't that high.

July 25, 2008. Global warming? Irrational hysteria.

July 26,2008. Look at this incredible home ownership rate rebound.

July 27,2008. Like Ben Stein says, overall this economy is not bad.

July 31, 2008. We're not in a recession.

Aug 05, 2008. Disposable income looking good.

Aug 7, 2008. Home sales data looking good.

Aug 7, 2008. Jobless claims are looking good.

Aug 10, 2008. Amount of sub prime mortgages is too small to matter.

Aug 12, 2008. Real estate boom continues for US farms.

Aug 12, 2008. Why are liberals like Paul Krugman pessimistic about the economy while conservatives are optimistic?

Aug 12, 2008. Look at the amazing growth in US exports? Expect US GDP to be revised upwards.

What he says is not always untrue. He often plots data and just comments on it. But the tone was similar then to what it is now. Things are just great. But they weren't back then. We need to look at track records more, including those of the left. We need to ask ourselves who it is that learns from their mistakes and who it is that never admits to any all while recommending the same failed policies of the past.