Reviews of The Economists' Hour
https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2019/08/29/when-economists-ruled-the-world
https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2019/08/29/when-economists-ruled-the-world
Marion Foucade ("Economics: The View from
Below") notes:
“In the course of the twentieth century, economists
have been able to establish a remarkable position for themselves, as experts in
local and national governmental organizations, in independent agencies and
central banks, in international institutions, in business and finance, and in
the media. They supplanted lawyers in government and historians in the public
sphere. As such, they have been involved with some of the most consequential
decisions that societies make—decisions having to do, for instance, with the
level of unemployment that might be left unattended, because it should be
considered “natural”; with whether or not to authorize the purchase and sale of
untested financial products or with how to organize the delivery of clean
water, vaccines or electricity.
This involvement has come at a cost. As Robert
Chernomas and Ian Hudson put it, “economics has the awkward distinction of
being both the most influential and the most reviled social science” (2016, 3).
We might add: economics may be the most reviled social science precisely
because it is the most influential. First, for better or for worse, economics
has become the science of making social choices, and as such it always cuts
right through the heart of politics and morality.”
Why politicians and economists often don’t get
along
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