No, there are actually experts that we should rely on. Of course no economist is a perfect predicter- predicting the future is hard. Tom Nichols’ book The Dea

No, there are actually experts that we should rely on. Of course no economist is a perfect predicter- predicting the future is hard. Tom Nichols’ book The Death of Expertise is relevant here. —— As for your specific points: - Paul Krugman, on his major predictions, has been incredibly prescient. He was talking about media bothsidesism, a major reason for this political moment, in 1999. He said America was being lied into war in Iraq in 2002. He predicted the effects of stimulus in America and Europe. The guy is a genius and so he becomes a target for his political enemies. (Re the stock prediction: he withdrew this in a few days. It was a minor prediction. The predictions above were long term predictions.) The issue is that conservative economics has been captured by the conservative propaganda machine which amplifies minor corrected predictions like this while ignoring the huge long term mistake that the right’s “economists” made about inflation in response to stimulus. - The business cycle causes recessions, yes. Not sure what you mean by economic policy. But both monetary and fiscal (tax) policy has big effects on entry and exit from recession. And also public debt affects provision of public policies like the social safety net.