The job of an economist is to believe, or at least make others believe,

[No Elephants]

that markets should determine policy and everything else in our lives.

Also to believe, or at least make others believe, that protecting markets and enriching job destroyers are the greatest possible societal goods.

In one of his plays (Henry IV, Part II), Shakespeare has one of his characters say, "'The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

I say, leave the lawyers alone. They've helped a lot of poor people and done a lot of social good by suing over dangerous products and fighting in court for the Bill of Rights, often for free or on contingency or for a lot less than they could make in corporate law firms.

School desegregation came about because an NAACP lawyer took the case to a bunch of former lawyers wearing black robes. Newspapers got rights to print things like the Pentagon Papers the same way. FOIA lawsuits force government to reveal things it would rather hide, etc.

But economists......

25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis

Blameworthy
Alan Greenspan
dek Photo Illustration; Greenspan: Alex Wong / Getty; Getty

The Federal Reserve chairman — an economist and a disciple of libertarian icon Ayn Rand — met his first major challenge in office by preventing the 1987 stock-market crash from spiraling into something much worse. Then, in the 1990s, he presided over a long economic and financial-market boom and attained the status of Washington's resident wizard. But the super-low interest rates Greenspan brought in the early 2000s and his long-standing disdain for regulation are now held up as leading causes of the mortgage crisis. The maestro admitted in an October congressional hearing that he had "made a mistake in presuming" that financial firms could regulate themselves.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1877351_1877350_1877331,00.html #ixzz2bddk5rnk

And, of course, there are politicians (public servants, my ass) like Bill Clinton, who said that he wanted repeal of Glass Steagall on his desk ASAP, thereby getting Democrats to vote for something they might otherwise have opposed, and Phil Gramm.

Like economists, they rationalize it all away.

And, perhaps even lower, are the lobbyists, like, well, Clinton and Gramm.

[Enthusiast]

1. Alan Greenspan is a convenient foil.

He only sucked as a person and as the head of the FED. His monetary policy, Bush's tax cuts and SEC policy encouraged the fraudsters to devise a way to steal the entire nation's wealth. A complicit media didn't challenge the greatest act of theft in the history of mankind. Sorry if that steps on any toes, that's just the way I see it. I know, I better watch my ass for leaving the perimeters of the cardboard cube. But millions of us know this now. It was planned. Complete with requisite distractions.

[No Elephants]

2. Bush, sure, but Gramm, Clinton, and Obama, too.

Clinton strong-armed Democrats re: repeal of Glass Steagall, which Phil Gramm had brought to Clinton and Congress straight from the lobbyists for the banksters. (I don't know about Leach and Blilely, but Clinton, who, btw, once said the nation needs lobbyists, may just be the smartest man I have ever heard speak. He had to have known what was going on.)

Before Obama even took office, he okay'd Tarp II. (Boy, did the dumb ole Bush team outsmart the slick Obama team by by saying he would not release Tarp II unless and until then President Elect Obama okay'd it. Or maybe it was all kabuki, agreed between the two political parties, so neither one would take the full hit with voters--who knows?)

Next, Obama did not even attempt to use the economic collapse of 2008, the large Democratic majorities, his big 2008 win and public approval--a very unique moment-- to repeal the Bush tax cuts and take other measures that would have shored up the economy for the benefit of the 99%. Not only did he not do that, but he gave us the Obama tax cuts just before the Bush tax cuts expired