ABSTRACT
To believe is the privilege of politicians. Economists should know. The economic policy makers - who are typically economists put in charge of politics - usurp the prerogatives of both groups and mistake belief for knowledge. What they believe is that, the way the world is made, the poor should be able to catch up with the rich and reduce the enormous differences in the level of economic development. Yet, these differences somehow grow year by year. Today nearly half of the world’s inhabitants live on less than two dollars a day, and a billion people - a sixth of mankind - subsist on less than a dollar.
