Interesting! Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert has privately funded a survey of 500 economists. He released his results and his interpretation in a press release and at CNN.
In short this is what he found :
60% of the economists say Obama would make the most progress for the economy, with 32% picking McCain, and 8% saying there would be no difference
This broke down across party lines :
I'll continue with the details and a mini-rant after the big hop.
Now if you ever read the Dilbert strip, (and sometimes I feel like I live), you know it's not kind to American corporate culture. Sometimes it's so down right truthful the laughter is just to stop the pain. American corporations have a tendency to be inhumane, undemocratic, hostile, and heartless institutions whose principle goal is to increase wealth for a select few (that is, shareholders and executives). Take HP's recent brutal announcement of 24,600 lay offs or Lehman's complete lack of imagination and resorting to Chapter 11 protection. Corporate economics are not the same as middle class economics and when Senator McCain blathers about 'fundamentals of the US economy' he is talking about corporations. When the stock market numbers are plastered across news screens, that's about corporate economics. Day to day real life financial issues are only abstractly and indirectly connected to the market or corporations for most of the American populace.
Ok rant over. Let's get to the survey!
Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, commissioned a survey of over 500 economists to find out which candidate for President of the United States would be best for the economy long term.
Says Adams, "I found myself wishing someone would give voters useful and unbiased information about which candidate has the best plans for the economy. Then I realized that I am someone, which is both inconvenient and expensive."
At considerable personal expense, Adams commissioned a survey of over 500 economists, drawn from a subset of the members of the American Economic Association, a non-political group, some of whose members had agreed in advance to be surveyed on economic questions.
The cross section of respondents reflects a bit of partisan bias:
48% Democrats
17% Republicans
27% Independents
3% Libertarian
5% Other or not registered
I suppose that 3% Libertarian is a result of Milton Friedman's theories and life work. If you are interested in modern day economic theory, you have to spend time studying Friedman, monetarism and deregulation theory.
The survey reached 523 economists who responded to an email invitation sent to 6,514 and took place from August 7-11, 2008.
The nitty gritty of the numbers reveals that 15% of Republicans and 60% Independents think Obama is stronger on the economy. I think Scott Adams sums up the point of view of those Republicans (Adams considers himself to be an "Arnold Republican") when he calls McCain a "lukewarm cadaver".
It's an interesting survey and includes questions on which topics are most important and which candidate is stronger. Given the liberal bias of reality and the Democrat bias of the response, the results weren't too surprising with general agreement that Obama would be best on most issues over the long run.
Of the three most important issues, Obama ranked best on two.
While I am generally skeptical of polls, I find this survey to be pretty interesting. The questions and the transparency appeal to me, and the intent to query a single profession is interesting. The respondents were also familiar with both of the candidate's positions in general making the assessment further meaningful.
More information on the survey can be found at:
Scott Adam's Blog
CNN
Draft Survey Results