ABSTRACT
There is a fundamental paradox at the core of economics, its models and methods. Economics rules. But its practitioners, economists, are frequently reviled.
Like Alexander the Great, economics has conquered the world. Its core principle has swept over the world. Economics’ central idea-the superiority of free open markets, in which individuals “vote” for products by buying them, the way people vote with ballots for candidates-has become the coin of the realm.1 One can even mark the triumphal date: November 9, 1989, the day the Berlin Wall fell.
