I have a master’s degree in political science, a master’s degree in geography with a 4.0 GPA, a PhD in law, a PhD in economics, a master’s degree in finance, a master’s degree in econometrics, a master’s degree in statistics, a master’s degree in history, and enough formal education to occupy a small shelf of university registrars.
Yet every week a man armed with an infographic and a grievance arrives to explain economics to me.
One must admire the courage.
It takes a special sort of confidence to discover a chart showing the long-term decline in the purchasing power of a currency and imagine one has thereby solved monetary economics, public finance, demography, political history, labour markets, capital formation, fiscal policy, sovereign debt, and economic growth.
The medieval alchemists at least had the decency to admit they were searching for answers.
The modern internet economist finds a picture on social media and concludes he has already found them.
The truly amusing part is not that these people are wrong. Everyone is wrong from time to time. The amusing part is that they believe a century of economic history can be reduced to a single line on a graph and a slogan about money printing.
After a while, one begins to suspect they are not studying economics at all. They are collecting comforting stories.
And then they wonder why people who have actually spent decades studying these subjects are less impressed by an infographic than they are.
https://x.com/i/status/2063859011376808278
Jun 8, 2026
https://t.me/CSW_Academic/476
Yet every week a man armed with an infographic and a grievance arrives to explain economics to me.
One must admire the courage.
It takes a special sort of confidence to discover a chart showing the long-term decline in the purchasing power of a currency and imagine one has thereby solved monetary economics, public finance, demography, political history, labour markets, capital formation, fiscal policy, sovereign debt, and economic growth.
The medieval alchemists at least had the decency to admit they were searching for answers.
The modern internet economist finds a picture on social media and concludes he has already found them.
The truly amusing part is not that these people are wrong. Everyone is wrong from time to time. The amusing part is that they believe a century of economic history can be reduced to a single line on a graph and a slogan about money printing.
After a while, one begins to suspect they are not studying economics at all. They are collecting comforting stories.
And then they wonder why people who have actually spent decades studying these subjects are less impressed by an infographic than they are.
https://x.com/i/status/2063859011376808278
Jun 8, 2026
https://t.me/CSW_Academic/476
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