Free exchange: To be relevant, economists need to take politics into account
Print Rubric:
Trying to stay above politics, economists risk being not just wrong, but irrelevant
Print Headline:
Get off of my cloud
Print Fly Title:
Free exchange
UK Only Article: standard article
Issue:
Equipping people to stay ahead of technological change
Fly Title:
Free exchange
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EVERY January more than 10,000 economists meet for the annual conference of the American Economic Association (AEA). This year, the shindig was in balmy Chicago, a stone’s throw from its second-tallest building, the name TRUMP stamped in extra-large letters across its base. Most papers had been written months in advance; few sessions tackled the electoral earthquake in November. Yet there was no mistaking the renewed sense, following its failure to foresee the 2007-08 financial crisis, of an academic field in a crisis of its ...