From [amazon_link id=”B002PNMILE” target=”_blank” ]An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science[/amazon_link] by Lionel Robbins (preface to 2nd edition, page ix):

An economist who is only an economist and does not happen to be a genius at his subject – and how unwise it is for any of to assume we are that – is a pretty poor fish. …[By} itself, Economics affords no solution to any of the important problems of life….an education which consists of Economics alone is a very imperfect education.

How true.

Next May I’m giving the Tanner Lectures at Brasenose, on the public responsibilities of economists and so have started re-reading (after a long gap) some of the classics. The Robbins, revised in 1935, stands up rather well in many ways.

A poor fish