The Knight Foundation, which focuses on improving the quality of journalism, is sponsoring a webinar next month that is supposed to bring reporters up to speed to deal with the economic crisis. The presenter at the webinar if Douglas Holtz-Eakin, formerly John McCain's top economic adviser. Holtz-Eakin is a decent person and a good economist, but the fact is that he was caught completely by surprise by the crash of the housing bubble and the resulting financial and economic fallout. While he may be a good source for telling reporters how economists managed to get it wrong, it might be more helpful if the Knight Foundation could find an economist to lead its webinar who was not surprised by the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression.
--Dean Baker Addendum: I wrongly identified the Knight Foundation as the sponsor of this webinar. In fact, the sponsor is the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism, which is funded by the Knight Foundation.