Economists attract ridicule

Economists attract ridicule and resentment in equal measure. People mock them, in the same way they poke fun at all eggheads and number-crunchers. But for everyone who scoffs, there is someone (perhaps the same person) who secretly fears that economists are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, purveyors of dangerous ideas that are filling the heads and turning the minds of the political leaders who claim to be in charge.