21st Century Economic Problems – Goodbye and Goodluck

“Economists consistently overstate how much they know about the economy and how easily they can influence it,” concluded the renowned USA economics commentator Robert Samuelson.

He explained, upon his recent retirement from fifty years of erudite writing: “[Economists] maintain their political and corporate relevance by postulating pleasant policies. Presidents claim the good and repudiate the bad.”

Ceasing, at age seventy-five, an estimated output of more than two million weighty words, Samuelson drew his career to a close with these last, ominous words: “I am a man of the 20th century, but we are now facing the problems of the 21st century, which demand new policies and norms. Goodbye and good luck — you’ll need as much help as you can get.”