Last Saturday the Dom’ gave economist Bernard Hickey a full page to lambast the government (and others) over housing prices, which as an aside, is a world-wide problem.
Bernard devoted most of the article to outlining the wrong prophecies on house prices by diverse public figures, going back nearly quarter a century.
Don Brash copped three entries, as did former Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard, and his successor Graeme Wheeler, also three. Bill English, John Key and Steven Joyce’s’ wrong calls were also detailed.
But amazingly one of the most publicised doomsday prophecies over that period was missed out.
That was by a bloke called Bernard Hickey, who a decade or so back, proclaimed that Auckland house prices were insane, were about to collapse, and that he was selling up and shifting to the capital, which he did, losing a fortune through this wrong call.
How to explain this omission? A Dom’ cockup is one’s automatic assumption.
Another possibility is there are two economists called Bernard Hickey, both obsessed with this subject.
Think of the rich potential this offers. Bernard (A) could embark on a life of crime; raping, pillaging, shop-lifting and what have you, safe in the knowledge that if nabbed, he could claim the culprit was his clone, Bernard (B).
He certainly should think about such a career change, given his disastrous record (like most economists) on economic forecasting.