Editing Pessimism (section)

== Criticism ==

=== Pragmatic criticism ===
Through history, some have concluded that a pessimistic attitude, although justified, must be avoided to endure. Optimistic attitudes are favored and of emotional consideration.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Michau |first=Michael R. |title="Doing, Suffering, and Creating": William James and Depression |url=https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mmichau/james-and-depression.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226082217/https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mmichau/james-and-depression.pdf |archive-date=2009-02-26 |access-date=2020-04-22 |website=web.ics.purdue.edu}}</ref> [[Al-Ghazali]] and [[William James]] rejected their pessimism after suffering [[psychological illness|psychological]], or even [[psychosomatic]] illness. Criticisms of this sort however assume that pessimism leads inevitably to a mood of darkness and utter depression. Many philosophers would disagree, claiming that the term "pessimism" is being abused. The link between pessimism and [[nihilism]] is present, but the former does not necessarily lead to the latter, as philosophers such as [[Albert Camus]] believed. Happiness is not inextricably linked to [[optimism]], nor is pessimism inextricably linked to unhappiness. One could easily imagine an unhappy optimist, and a happy pessimist. Accusations of pessimism may be used to silence legitimate criticism.

The economist [[Nouriel Roubini]] (who introduces himself as Dr. Doom) was largely dismissed as a pessimist, for his dire but to some extent accurate predictions of a coming global [[financial crisis]], in 2006. However, financial journalist [[Justin Fox]] observed in the ''[[Harvard Business Review]]'' in 2010 that "In fact, Roubini didn't exactly predict the crisis that began in mid-2007... Roubini spent several years predicting a very different sort of crisis—one in which foreign central banks diversifying their holdings out of Treasuries sparked a run on the dollar—only to turn in late 2006 to warning of a U.S. housing bust and a global 'hard landing'. He still didn't give a perfectly clear or (in retrospect) accurate vision of how exactly this would play out... I'm more than a little weirded out by the status of prophet that he has been accorded since."<ref>[[Justin Fox]] (May 26, 2010). [https://hbr.org/2010/05/what-exactly-is-nouriel-roubini "What Exactly is Nouriel Roubini Good For?"], ''[[Harvard Business Review]]''.</ref><ref>David H. Freedman (2010). [https://books.google.com/books?id=YmLkUrazAsoC&dq=%22nouriel+roubini%22+%22wrong%22&pg=PT95 Wrong: ''Why experts* keep failing us--and how to know when not to trust them,''] [[Little, Brown]].</ref><ref>[[Thomas Palley|Thomas I. Palley]] (2013). [https://books.google.com/books?id=BoqX7rZx-DQC&dq=%22nouriel+roubini%22+%22wrong%22&pg=PA196 ''From Financial Crisis to Stagnation; The Destruction of Shared Prosperity and the Role of Economics''].</ref> Others noted that "The problem is that even though he was spectacularly right on this one, he went on to predict time and time again, as the markets and the economy recovered in the years following the collapse, that there would be a follow-up crisis and that more extreme crashes were inevitable. His calls, after his initial pronouncement, were consistently wrong. Indeed, if you had listened to him, and many investors did, you would have missed the longest bull market run in US market history."<ref>David Lawrence (February 4, 2022). [https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/industrynews/why-year-ahead-stock-predictions-are-usually-wrong/ "Why year-ahead stock predictions are usually wrong,"] ''[[North Bay Business Journal]]''.</ref><ref>Jayson MacLean (May 6, 2020). [https://www.cantechletter.com/2020/05/nouriel-roubini-warns-of-great-depression-just-like-he-did-last-year-and-the-year-before-that/# "Nouriel Roubini warns of Great Depression just like he did last year (and the year before that),"] ''[[Cantech Letter]]''.</ref><ref>[https://www.moneylife.in/article/market-gurusoverrated-dr-roubini-flopsagain/15015.html "Market gurus:Overrated Dr Roubini flops—again,"] ''[[Moneylife]]'', March 10, 2011.</ref><ref>[https://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/abg/2014/05/08/much-trust-economists-predictions/8844953/ "How much should you trust economists' predictions?"], ''[[AZ Central]]'', May 8, 2014.</ref> Another observed: "For a prophet, he's wrong an awful lot of the time."<ref name=listen>Joe Keohane (January 9, 2011). [http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/01/09/that_guy_who_called_the_big_one_dont_listen_to_him/?page=full "That guy who called the big one? Don’t listen to him."] ''[[The Boston Globe]]''.</ref> [[Tony Robbins]] wrote: "Roubini warned of a recession in 2004 (wrongly), 2005 (wrongly), 2006 (wrongly), and 2007 (wrongly)" ... and he "predicted (wrongly) that there'd be a 'significant' stock market correction in 2013."<ref>[[Tony Robbins]], [[Creative Planning|Peter Mallouk]] (2017). [https://books.google.com/books?id=k0_jDAAAQBAJ&dq=%22nouriel+roubini%22+%22wrong%22&pg=PA32 ''Unshakeable; Your Financial Freedom Playbook'']</ref> Speaking about Roubini, economist [[Anirvan Banerji]] told ''[[The New York Times]]'': "Even a stopped clock is right twice a day."<ref name=Emma>Emma Brockes (January 23, 2009). [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/jan/24/nouriel-roubini-credit-crunch "He told us so,"] ''[[The Guardian]]''.</ref> Economist [[Nariman Behravesh]] said: "Nouriel Roubini has been singing the doom-and-gloom story for 10 years. Eventually something was going to be right."<ref name=Hel>[[Helaine Olen]] (March 30, 2009). [https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/the-prime-of-mr-nouriel-roubini/200990 "The Prime of Mr. Nouriel Roubini"], ''[[Entrepreneur (magazine)|Entrepreneur]]''.</ref>

''[[Personality Plus (Littauer book)|Personality Plus]]'' opines that pessimistic temperaments (''e.g.'', [[melancholy temperament|melancholy]] and [[phlegmatic temperament|phlegmatic]]) can be useful inasmuch as pessimists' focus on the negative helps them spot problems that people with more optimistic temperaments (''e.g.'', [[choleric temperament|choleric]] and [[sanguine temperament|sanguine]]) miss.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}