There's some truth to this take but it's not nearly as bad as most people think.
Many people look at the economy and see that it is bad and so they think the economists must be bad at their job, but in many cases people in power simply don't listen to economists.
The best example of this in my opinion is land value tax.
Milton Friedman is an Nobel prize winner on the libertarian side who called lvt the best tax policy. Joseph Stieglitz is a Nobel prize winner who is a socialist who also advocated for lvt. A recent survey showed something like 83% of economists saying that lvt would significantly increase growth.
And yet zero countries have implemented an lvt rate that is much higher than inflation.
Good and smart policies do not need to be accepted by economists to be implemented. They need to be accepted by those in power and by the general population.
In my opinion, if anything we should have way more economists on the news talking about the economy than the political pundits that you typically see - not the other way around!
Many people look at the economy and see that it is bad and so they think the economists must be bad at their job, but in many cases people in power simply don't listen to economists.
The best example of this in my opinion is land value tax.
Milton Friedman is an Nobel prize winner on the libertarian side who called lvt the best tax policy. Joseph Stieglitz is a Nobel prize winner who is a socialist who also advocated for lvt. A recent survey showed something like 83% of economists saying that lvt would significantly increase growth.
And yet zero countries have implemented an lvt rate that is much higher than inflation.
Good and smart policies do not need to be accepted by economists to be implemented. They need to be accepted by those in power and by the general population.
In my opinion, if anything we should have way more economists on the news talking about the economy than the political pundits that you typically see - not the other way around!