We Are Not Alone...

...in our assessments of clueless economists:

Brad DeLong wrote [to me about an error I'd made about SS] pointing out that the demographic models used in 50 year projections are actually pretty well understood. So i stand corrected. Brad also had a cautionary note on how getting snarky in defense of/attacking certain political segments erodes one's reputation, a principle that Brad threw to the wind deciding that the joys of paddling in Krugman's fever swamps outweighed the fact that he's viewed as yet another partisan hack from Berkeley, but hey, I don't judge.

....Arnold Kling and Max have a celebrity death-match around SS, with Arnold taking the "fix a bad system" approach, and Max taking the "SS is fine/even if it is not fine Bush will make it worse/fix other things first/the Iraq war was wrong/incentives do not effect behavior/Bush=Hitler" position. Am I being uncharitable to Max? Maybe, but you can judge this for yourself....

I actually think that the Bush=Hitler psychosis that has gripped Democrats should embolden those who want to reform social security. The opposition will be blinded by their own froth.