Image copyright Bank of England Image caption Mr Haldane said it was a “fair cop” to say the profession was in crisis The failure to predict the financial crisis was a “Michael Fish” moment for economists, the Bank of England"s chief economist has said.
Andy Haldane compared financial forecasts to the famously inaccurate forecast by the BBC weatherman, ahead of the UK"s great storm of 1987.
He said it was fair to say the profession was “in crisis”.
But he said weather forecasting had vastly improved since then – and the same could be true for economists.
Mr Haldane was speaking to an audience at the Institute for Government in London on Thursday, when he made the comparison.
"Tipped upside down"He said economic models had been “rather narrow and rather fragile” which were “fine as long as the going was good” but when the world was “tipped upside down” by the 2008/2009 crisis, they had failed to cope.
“Turns out, that was a massive oversight,” he said.
“Could we fi..
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