Swedish economist Axel Leijonhufvud

 For me, his real gem is “Life among the Econ”, a comic essay written with wry affection, but serious intent, 50 years ago.

https://www.ufjf.br/econs/files/2010/05/life-econ-crop.pdf

As I noted in a column last year, Leijonhufvud wrote it soon after joining UCLA

https://www.ft.com/content/ecf08d1b-88e3-4c0e-ae3d-8242f52db278

The essential message of “Life among the Econ”, that economists can sometimes be prone to tunnel vision and abstraction, is still relevant. 

These failings were one reason why so few foresaw that 2008 crisis. In the years leading up to it, most economists had little contact with either the weeds of the financial system (where credit bubbles were developing) or subprime mortgage borrowers (where consumers were not behaving as economists’ models predicted).

Gillian Tett 11 May 2022

https://www.ft.com/content/b409c254-79e6-41f4-91ce-dbeaebda016e

Five years before the financial meltdown of 2008, Robert Lucas famously declared that “the central problem of depression-prevention has been solved . . . and it has been for many decades”.

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2019/10/why-do-economists-continue-to-get-it-so.html