Rethinking Economics by Angus Deaton published by IMF (3/2024).
Economics has achieved much; there are large bodies of often nonobvious theo retical understandings and of careful and sometimes compelling empirical evidence. The profession knows and under stands many things. Yet today we are in some disarray. We did not collectively predict the f inancial crisis and, worse still, we may have contributed to it through an overenthusi astic belief in the efficacy of markets, espe cially financial markets whose structure and implications we understood less well than we thought. Recent macroeconomic events, admittedly unusual, have seen quarrelling experts whose main point of agreement is the incorrectness of others. Economics Nobel Prize winners have been known to denounce each other’s work at the ceremonies in Stock holm, much to the consternation of those lau reates in the sciences who believe that prizes are given for getting things right.