ABSTRACT
The strategy in this article is first to document my claim about the economics as fun literature, something that can be done very briefly. I then relate this to instances of economics being used to solve serious problems, pointing out examples of both success and failure and, more important, suggesting that though economic theory can be very powerful under the right circumstances, it has limitations that the economics-made-fun literature plays down. The economics as fun literature is then reviewed in the light of these limitations, drawing attention to its methodological limitations.
