Why I Hate Economics

Jane Smiley writes the truth about the profession of economics (read the whole thing at the link):

Who's paying these guys? One of the profound effects of economics in our day is
that the people with the money and the power have embraced the guilt-free,
external-less, everything-will-turn-out-okay-in-the-end philosophy of economics
in order to justify their own evil works. And the economists, for the most part,
have sucked up to that money. Aspen Institute? Let me in. Hoover Institution?
That's not located in Kiev, is it? Oh, right -- Palo Alto. The reciprocal back
patting, mutual admiration, and pocket lining of these economists and their
friends in high places is never-ending and destructive. It is called
"corruption." Naomi Klein wrote about some egregious examples in The Shock
Doctrine. But don't tell Greenspan that he's an item of corrupt vermin
skittering around the old boy's club -- he thinks of himself as an intellectual.
Unless and until these economists look within (do they have a "within"?) and
understand the destruction they have caused, they will continue to tell an eager
audience (the ruling class) that everything is fine, or soon will be, or ought
to be, or...whatever. What has created our mess is arrogant no-nothingism at the
highest levels, and as long as that obtains, there is no hope for the rest of
us.