2013-08-06
Original: 2013-08-06 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
A woman (brown hair): Is macroeconomics a science?
A man (in a suit, gesturing): Well, it's a social science, so it's not really predictive like, say, chemistry.
Panel 2:
The woman: So how do you make all those predictions?
The man: We have to use somewhat more heuristic techniques than others.
Panel 3 (caption: EARLIER):
A man dressed as a witch/sorcerer leans over a glowing crystal ball, hands raised, chanting: Eye of Newt and Wing of Flea. What is next year's GDP?
Votey:
A close-up of the crystal ball. Scrawled, magically appearing text inside it reads (among scribbles): "2%", "higher".
A woman (brown hair): Is macroeconomics a science?
A man (in a suit, gesturing): Well, it's a social science, so it's not really predictive like, say, chemistry.
Panel 2:
The woman: So how do you make all those predictions?
The man: We have to use somewhat more heuristic techniques than others.
Panel 3 (caption: EARLIER):
A man dressed as a witch/sorcerer leans over a glowing crystal ball, hands raised, chanting: Eye of Newt and Wing of Flea. What is next year's GDP?
Votey:
A close-up of the crystal ball. Scrawled, magically appearing text inside it reads (among scribbles): "2%", "higher".
Alt text
A three-panel SMBC comic. Panel 1: a woman asks a suited man, "Is macroeconomics a science?" He answers, "Well, it's a social science, so it's not really predictive like, say, chemistry." Panel 2: she asks, "So how do you make all those predictions?" He replies, "We have to use somewhat more heuristic techniques than others." Panel 3, labeled EARLIER: the same man, now dressed as a witch/sorcerer, leans over a glowing crystal ball with his hands raised, chanting, "Eye of Newt and Wing of Flea. What is next year's GDP?" The joke: economists' "heuristic techniques" are revealed to be literal witchcraft. Votey (aftercomic): a close-up of the crystal ball, its surface filled with messy hand-scrawled forecasts where you can make out "2%" and "higher" among the scribbles, mimicking a vague, hedged economic prediction.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.