What will the world look like in 100 years?” wondered Ignacio Palacios-Huerta. Being an economist at the London School of Economics, he put this question to other economists. Admittedly, the profession didn’t foresee the financial crisis but, still, he writes in the introduction to his new book, economists “know more about the laws of human interactions and have reflected more deeply and with better methods than any other human beings”. (Declaration of interest: I once tried to market Palacios-Huerta’s insights into penalty-kicks to football clubs. Nobody ever paid us.)
“100年後的世界將是什麼樣子？」伊格納西奧•帕蘭喬斯-韋爾塔(Ignacio Palacios-Huerta)問道。作爲倫敦政治經濟學院(London School of Economics)的經濟學家，他向其他經濟學家問了這個問題。誠然，經濟學這一行並未預測到金融危機，但他在新書的引言中寫道：經濟學家「相比其他人羣對於人類互動的規律更瞭解，其思考的深度和所用的方法也更強」。（立場聲明：我曾試圖將帕蘭喬斯-韋爾塔的理論推銷給足球隊主罰點球的隊員，結果沒人願意出錢。）