"The Spreadsheet That Killed The Economy"

One more example of the daily indispensability of Sam Seder: this interview with Mike Koncal, who's broken the story of how the report used to promote government austerity has now been exposed for its sloppy methodology.

Konczal's reporting here is on the details of Reinhart and Rogoff's questionable use of data. Seder's interview goes to the access the two were given: a meeting with forty senators in need of either frightening about where the economy was heading, or justification for policies they were set to pursue. As Konczal notes, the Reinhart-Rogoff work was never peer-reviewed—but it certainly was propelled into channels more important to establishing conventional wisdom.

Seder also makes the point that the selling of these policies works the same as the selling of Iraq did: by a process of political access being determined by a "credentialism" that can also serve as the rationale for choosing atrocious policies. Konczal's reply: "elite self-policing broke down."