Woe to the economists.
Supply and demand, indeed. Once upon a time I was married to an economist (I know, an unholy alliance of social science) who told me the reason that they made more money than we did was that they produced a socially valuable commodity and that we political scientists did not.
Yeah, my supply of economist definitely exceeded local demand.
Some excellent hard times as an antidote:
Posted by binky at February 17, 2009 07:35 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Economics | The AcademyLarge Investment Firm that used to employ me had an august and exalted staff economist -- had served on the Council of Economic Advisers in a previous administration, wall of his lavish corner office was covered with Ivy degrees, etc., etc.
All of the fund managers -- the people actually doing the work of running the money -- thought he was a completely useless jerk. Every last one of them. I spent some time with him and I emphatically agreed. He said nothing that wasn't hedged six ways to Sunday. None of us could figure out why LIF continued to pay the guy, much less keep him in a showy place of honor etc. Eventually there was a senior management shift and the exalted fellow was encouraged to *cough* return to academia.
That said, I have a friend who is a moderately exalted/famous econ prof, and he is widely hailed as a great teacher and writes good books. I like him immensely. He is not, however, shoving himself in front of TV cameras to make Great Predictions at the moment -- which I count to his credit. The profession could do with a bit more of that.
Oh, and Gene Fama is a moron. Just had to say that. And one of the contributors to the online dating piece that Clark-via-Cole points to is emphatically not a moron and has done some really neat work (Dan Ariely).
Posted by: jacflash at February 18, 2009 12:29 PM | PERMALINKI have posted about Dan before. I love him.
Posted by: binky at February 18, 2009 11:41 PM | PERMALINK