One-handed economists!
January 22, 2014
“Give me a one-handed economist, all my economists say is ‘on the one hand …and on the other hand…” Harry Truman (US President 1945-53)
One can understand the frustration of the former US President when all the advice proffered by his economists was given with a cautionary alternate scenario. When grappling with urgent issues, rulers and administrators will much prefer to be given a clear course of action with predictable results as opposed to several options, the consequences of none being predictable.
But “on the other hand”, it is obvious that it is not easy, perhaps even impossible, to either define or predict all the complex and incalculable mixture of human activity which fall into the definition of economics.
