>I have to agree. There are many young programmers that have programmed circles around experienced programmers with years of experience. What they are lacking though is business knowledge and business experience. Even having a business degree is not sufficient. I would definitely hire a young programmer to do programming under supervision but not as an analyst. For that, I'd want an experienced analyst programmer with experience translating business rules and streamlining business practices (and also good communications skills and experience dealing directly with the customer). Typically a good shop has a mixed bunch of both.
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Here you are absolutely right. There are exceptions (Zlatin), but usually programmers need 3-5 years experience, before to pile enough business experience to be ready to analyze business rules alone.
I prefer programmers to not dealing directly with custommers. Better solution (according me) is with them to contact business analyst(consultant), which speak the same "language" as customer