said Walter Bagehot. After the subprime crisis burst in 2008, people were probably thinking: no one is ever really sorry when a banker dies.

I recommend reading about a mock trial of economists organized by LSE in 1933. I found information here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-24/when-the-u-k-tried-economists-for-spreading-mental-fog-.html and more about it is here:http://jepson.richmond.edu/conferences/adam-smith/paper11levy-peart.pdf

What a story! – “Boothby indicted the economists for being “unintelligible.” Worse, he said, they had been proven wrong, disagreed among themselves and changed their arguments. He particularly attacked “the gang which calls itself J.M. Keynes” for its contradictory opinions, which he said had nearly driven the minister of agriculture mad.”

Defendant: “Did you ever know any two economists to agree upon anything — whether the government liked it or not?”

Boothby: “On my oath, never!”

Sweet!

(A picture from http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/48750/Walter-Bagehot)