Blogs have blurred the line for when Ph.D. economists are being "scientific" versus when they are merely firing off a personal "opinion" (i.e Romney is right or Obama will deliver 4% growth). In blog entries, there are no footnotes. Nobody is "two handed". Nuance vanishes and this creates a negative externality for the profession as a whole as prominent economists leverage their stationary and their past reputation to make bold claims that offer great soundbites but may not be true. This worries me because such claims reflect on the whole profession.
Here is a smart quote I found in the comments in the
Chronicle of Higher Education.