Since Bob Dole proposed his economic plan, we’ve seen a resurgence of a hoary journalistic genre: the “most economists” story. In the current iteration, a journalist in question — Richard Stevenson of the New York Times or, most notoriously, Clay Chandler of the Washington Post — reports that “most economists” are scathing about the Dole economic plan. Well, now we have a firmer grasp on what “most economists” believe. William C. Adams of George Washington University surveyed 700 random members of the American Economics Association. It turns out that “most economists” are mild supply-siders. Eighty-one percent believe the Reagan tax cuts increased economic growth. More than half believe deficits in the 1980s were due more to growth in federal spending than to the Reagan tax cuts. The news isn’t entirely sunny for Dole, though: Only 41 percent believe the Dole claim that ” about 30 percent of the static revenue lost from a 15 percent cut in income tax rates would be recaptured by the resulting increase in economic growth.” Even so, the survey provides evidence that most reporters are profoundly misleading their readers when they purport to describe what most economists believe. Are you listening, Clay Chandler?
