As I pointed out yesterday, one problem with doing economics for popular audiences is the possibility of being misinterpreted. Another problem is the possibility of having commenters who believe they hold the Rosetta Stone of economics in their hands and spout off all kinds of errant nonsense.

And sometimes they infest other people's blogs. Take for example my good friend Captain Ed, who wanted to post something rather mild on how an AP writer ignores data and relies on anecdote. I didn't comment on it last week because to do that would require me to quit my day job, so many are the examples. And so I didn't look down to see his comments, which contained a dizzying array of comments from people each of whom thought they were right and the others were stunningly ignorant.

Some guy posts "shadow government statistics". Another just KNOWS there are two economies out there. Numerous posters trying to extrapolate from one state or one part of one state to the economy as a whole. An ill-informed discussion of supply-side economics (go read this and learn). Ed looks at me on Saturday with a "can you believe this?" look.

Yes I can, sir. Yes I can. It's why I write on more than economics here.