Wednesday, January 30, 2013

"Fake Portuguese Economist Unmasked"

From the Guardian:
And to some lighter news out of Portugal, where a fake economist duped the nation for months. Our correspondent Giles Tremlett reports:
Artur Baptista da Silva had become one of the most authoritative voices on Portuguese television, using his experience as an economist and United Nations consultant to explain why so much austerity was bad for the bailed-out country's economy.

But now it turns out that the 61-year-old economist who explained so seriously – and clearly – the damage being inflicted on the country by the austerity measures demanded by the troika of lenders (EU, IMF and ECB) was a conman with at least two jail terms behind him....MORE
HT: Professor Greg (hardest working textbook salesman in show business) Mankiw who headlined his post:
He didn't know the secret handshake