Some celebrity economic commentators, such as the Russian-born, Dublin-based dismal scientist Constantin Gurdgiev and mortgages analyst Karl Deeter, really just want to be loved, judging by their Twitter musings.

Gurdgiev was a respected go-to guy during the crash for journalists in search of dense, rigorous (and usually gloomy) analysis. He has recently been lamenting loudly that Irish media appear to have lost interest in his very important thoughts. He complained earlier this month: “Telling? My blog is read by [up to] 2,500 per working day – not a single newspaper in Ireland would give me a column.”

He sniffed that he is no longer “on the radar” of Irish journalists, who, the devils, regularly read his blog but are too mean to “cite” it. Greta Garbo he ain’t.

Gurdgiev's wailing turned to howling on Wednesday night when the Tonight Show on TV3 hosted a debate on the mortgage arrears crisis, but didn't include on its panel a representative of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (IMHO), the group he co-founded with David Hall.

Deeter, an erstwhile rival of IMHO in the publicity stakes, was on the TV3 panel. Presenter Ivan Yates described him as a "property economist", although he is better known as a mortgage broker.

Deeter had a Twitter scrap with Gurdgiev as soon as the show finished over figures IMHO had included in a previous mortgages report it published. Gurdgiev, presumably tired and emotional after watching Deeter swipe the limelight once again, declared himself “saddened that this descended into personal questioning of my integrity by someone I called a friend”.

Deeter responded that “scrutiny is not personal – I asked valid questions. U can unfollow but I still like you anyway :-)”

Economists are real people with feelings too, you know.