ABSTRACT
Lord Keynes, in a famous forecast, thought the subject would eventually become unimportant – in social significance it would rank about with dentistry … But though in a sense Keynes was right about the subject in decline, in a larger sense he was wrong … the future of economics could be rather bright. It could be in touch with the gravest problems of our time. Whether this is so – whether economics is important – is up to economists. They can, if they are determined, be unimportant; they can, if they prefer a comfortable home life and regular hours, continue to make a living out of the infinitely interesting gadgetry of disguise…
Or economists can enlarge their system. They can embrace, in all its diverse manifestations, the power they now disguise.
