We Are so Screwed; CIA Edition

NPR this morning had a story about the CIA recruiting Wall Street types to perform economic analysis. It is not a new story. More here.

I don't get it. Before last September, somewhere between "damn few" and "none" of those guys saw the signs that our economy was at risk for collapse. So you have to wonder just what the CIA planning to pay them to do. Are they just going to sit in a cubicle somewhere in the DC area and write summaries based on the articles in the Asian edition of the Financial Times? If the idea is to spot the risk of a financial collapse in other nations, well, let's face it, those guys have a pretty shitty track record.

Jon Stewart had a piece on it last week.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Spy Low Sell High
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

Nobody is talking about what data they are going to be looking at. If the data is not to be found in open-source English publications, then the CIA needs to find Wall Street analysts who can speak Arabic, Hindi, Farsi, Urdu, Indonesian, Tagalog, Mandarin and probably a number of other languages. Good luck with that.