Filthy lucre

"Economists have a bad reputation. Not only do they assume that everyone is self-interested and amoral, they are almost always cheerleaders for the free market. As a result, most people who do not already share their beliefs ignore everything that economists have to say. This is a problem. Even among the highly educated, economics is a minefield of fallacies and errors. Among those who know little about the subject--a group that includes the average taxpayer and consumer, as well as most journalists, political activists and politicians--almost every widely held belief is false. The level of…