What’s Wrong With Economists?
By
Justin Wolfers
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/whats-wrong-with-economists/
You probably recall
Hillary Clinton turning anti-economist in the dying days of her campaign:
“Well I’ll tell you what, I’m not going to put my lot in with economists.” （......希拉里·克林顿：“我要说的是，我不会再把运气交给经济学家了”）
And more recently
John McCain has jumped aboard:
“I trust the people and not the so-called economists to give the American people a little relief.”（......约翰·麦肯恩：“我相信群众，不相信那些所谓的经济学家能给美国人民减轻一丝负担”）
Honestly, I don’t get it. So let me ask two questions. And these aren’t rhetorical questions — I am serious about trying to better understand both.
First, what’s so bad about (so-called) economists anyway? I thought that the job of experts was to offer expertise. Is it that we are not offering our expertise, that we don’t have expertise to offer, or that expertise is not required? Or something else?
And second, why does economist-bashing suddenly make political sense? Both McCain’s and Clinton’s comments came subsequent to economists suggesting that the gas-tax holiday was pure pandering. And the polling I saw suggested that
the public believed us. Indeed, it
may even have cost Clinton a chance to turn things around in the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.
What gives?
