Article: Plain speaking can make even `dismal science' seem clear

Television weathermen are sure to give you the latest barometer reading even though no one except aircraft pilots gives a raindrop about barometric pressure. Or, to be more accurate, even though almost no one in this age has any real idea of what a barometer reading may mean.

Some folks think economists are as bad as TV weathermen. That's overstating the case. However, both can blather on and on and both can make much of arcane statistics. And both can be miserably wrong.

When talking about economists, it is usual if not mandatory to refer to their field of study as the "dismal science." Usually the speaker is trying to condemn economics as difficult, murky, boring, in the same sense ...

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