It would be awesome if we make this a community effort to find the worst predictions/statements that well known economists have made. Lets consolidate these in one place for everyone to see
Paul Krugman, New York TimesRemember, interest rates can’t fall — the zero lower bound isn’t a theory, it’s a fact, and it’s a fact that we’ve been facing for five years now.
--Negative interest rates are starting most notably in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Austria and in a few corporate bonds such as Nestle
Paul Krugman, The Red Herring"The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in "Metcalfe's law"--which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants--becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's.
--The internet has provided countless jobs (think companies like Google), it opened the gateway for 'at home' stock traders and high frequency trading...I could never list all the impacts the internet has had on economics
Franklin Raines (Fannie Mae CEO) Speech to Congress in 2004
These supbrime assets are so riskless that their capital for holding them should be under 2 percent.
--Then the government rescued Fannie Mae in 2008 during the subprime loan crisis
Joseph Cassano (AIG) in 2007It is hard for us, without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any kind of realm of reason that would see us losing one dollar in any of these Credit Default Swap transactions.
--Also required government intervention in 2008
Donald Luskin in 2008Anyone who says we’re in a recession, or heading into one—especially the worst one since the Great Depression—is making up his own private definition of 'recession'
--The Recession began that very year.
Ben Bernanke in January 2008The Federal Reserve is currently not forecasting a recession.
--Recession began that year. The Fed either lied to us or they are terrible at analyzing the economy.
