Posted by John Irons at March 06, 2004 09:01 PM

I used to say that the quickest way to throw one's credibility out the door on economic matters was to call oneself a "supply-side economist."

I think I have to modify my theory.

I now think a faster way to show that you have lost all credibility and that you never intend to be taken seriously ever again is to claim that either 1) the household survey is a better measure of employment than the payroll survey, or 2) that "economists disagree" about which survey should be used.

The payroll survey is better, and it is what everyone uses - there is as much disagreement on this as there is on the question of whether or not the earth is round.

Would these people really be running around talking about the weaknesses of the payroll survey if for some reason it showed job growth? I don't think so.