Economists Should Be More Circumspect

Re: “Economy Has Reached ‘Soft Landing’ and There’s No Recession in Sight, Analysts Say” (Sept. 12): No one but a free-market economist, a true believer, can say that without gagging, let alone believe it.

I too am an “economic analyst”--have been for 81 years. I lived through the Big One of the ‘30s. Economists should be more circumspect about what they say. They forget that the rest of us live in this same world and actually experience the economy and don’t necessarily draw the same conclusions.

I am comfortably retired and live in an affluent neighborhood, but when I drive through various areas of the city, I see an economy that is not so good. I see miles of vacant storefronts; dozens of major Downtown buildings empty; and also in Beverly Hills, people on street corners with “Will Work for Food” signs; homeless everywhere; “For Sale” signs in every block; the pavement is full of potholes; almost everything in the stores is made in Asia. I see most of the retail trade taken over by large capital-intensive warehouse operations staffed by minimum-wage workers.

Just whom do these “analysts” think they are kidding? From the standpoint of the banks and corporations, the economy has never been better, but for the average worker we are well into the Mother of All Depressions, and a global one at that. Next year will be worse, and the next.

A permanently viable economy does not exist solely for the benefit of ever-increasing shareholder profits. Until it is realized that the working class that produces the goods and services must be paid enough to buy what it produces, our economists are not living in the same world the rest of us do. All their talk of money supply, growth, downsizing, soft landings, economic indicators, Dow Jones, etc., is just so much crap.

FRANK WILBY

Brentwood