Economics and Economists
The American actor Will Rogers once said (in 1932) that “an economist’s guess is liable to be as good as anybody else’s” (click here for more jokes about economists). More seriously, Paul Krugman (a Nobel Prize winning economist who these days is probably better known for his acerbic columns in the New York Times) wrote, “Economists may make lots of bad predictions, but they do have a method – a systematic way of thinking about the world that is more true than not, that gives them genuine if imperfect expertise. That is also, of course, why lay commentators and other social scientists tend to hate them”. Some of my thoughts about my profession and its practitioners are here.
Reflections on climate change, and the quality of Australian economists
Economics and Economists, Publications | 6th July 2011Op-ed article published in the Melbourne Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers on 6th July 2011
‘Commuting the Death Sentence’: The Role of Editors in the Australian Economy
Economics and Economists | 11th May 2007Talk to the Third National Conference of Professional Editors, Hobart, 11th May 2007
The Importance of Accurate, Reliable and Timely Data
Economics and Economists | 19th May 2006Discussion Paper prepared for a group of ‘Eminent Australians’ working with the Indigenous community of the Goulburn Valley, Victoria, 19th May 2006
