...or so it was claimed during a panel at the recent AEA meetings, according to the 'Free Exchange' article (maybe some of you were at the session?) It presents a list of statements on which there is wide agreement by professional (academic, mostly) economists, and on which the non-economist consensus is almost as broad in the opposite direction.
So, the question is - if we tell the world (not to mention our students) that we have useful and relevant insights to offer on how the world operates, why do they so often disagree with what most of us say? One answer is the public just isn't yet educated, we need to try harder, but that seems a hard explanation to buy. The second reading is excerpted from the Noahpinion blog, and it addresses the particular dissonance between the economists long-standing love of free trade and the common general belief that it is killing us slowly.
So, what's going on? Are we just full of it? Is Joe Public just hopelessly dumb? Will it all get better if we become better communicators? Or....and your correspondent is just spitballing here.....might it have anything to do with the fact that all these disagreements arise when our profession is wearing its magistral....er, normative robes?
See you at the FUBar.
