Mars Needs Economists

Phil Gramm, the former economics adviser to John McCain blamed bearish views about the economy on a "a nation of whiners."

Bull, meet bear. The Democratic governor of New York disagrees and puts the perception problem much further afield. Those who remain bullish on the economy, like Gramm, he contends, are "aliens."

Not aliens as in, say, visitors from France. But X-Files aliens, on earth with economics degrees, but out of touch with reality.

At a news conference in Albany on Monday, Governor David Paterson was contemptuous of economists who contend that we will avoid a recession this year and start to recover next year.

"This has finally confirmed to me that flying saucers have landed and that people from outer space are in our midst, influencing policy," Paterson said, according to Reuters.

The scornful attack came as governor warned that the retrenchment on Wall Street could cost the state as much as $1.7 billion in tax revenue this year.

"The reality is that there is a tremendous effect that income taxes, property taxes, rising fuel prices, rising food prices and all of the debt that the state has undergone is going to have in terms of our governance," he said.