PTF97.S1.Q6 - The coming economic recovery will surely....

bubba23-1

At first, I chose B instead of D. I thought D was questioning their credibility and I didn't pick up on that in the passage and chose B, because I understood it to mean that it would be more risky to not believe the people who have more to lose. But then I realized, that it's not risky to the reader necessarily what the forecast states, so that can't be right. It never said their would be consequences for the person reading it if they listened to the wrong expert just that the experts were facing various levels of risk. Also, questioning whether you should trust someone based on who has more skin in the game is questioning their reliability of the person that takes less risk, so I can see why D is right and B is wrong now.

Admin Note: Edited title. Please use the format: "PT#.S#.Q# - brief description of question”

maco4538

Conclusion: the coming economic recovery will surely be strong.

Why?

Premise: (Because) we should believe the investment company's economists over leading academic economists and the despite what the academic economists say, the investment company's economists believe that the coming economic recovery is strong.

So, before I even glance at the answer choices I should take stock of the sort of evidence I am looking at. First, it is a comparative argument. Second, it is an argument based on an assessment of credibility. So, it is an argument based on comparing the credibility of two position and siding with the position deemed more credible.

My preface then is that the main conclusion of the argument is supported only by assessment of the credibility of two competing positions.

D is a perfect paraphrase of my preface. B relates to the consequence of the reality that each position is putting forth.

To answer your question on who to rely on, you should never depend on the character of the person making the argument rather the logical integrity of their argument. When deciding between a position taken by someone you love versus someone you hate, take the side that is most logically sound. The person making the argument is irrelevant to the merit of the argument itself.