If You're So Smart: The Narrative of Economic Expertise

Writing with delicious wit and great seriousness, University of Iowa economist McCloskey here elaborates a thesis ascribing more art than science to society's economic evolution. ``Stories,'' ``metaphor,'' ``myth,'' ``analogy'' and ``model'' become bywords as he maintains, among other tenets, that scientists are per se rhetorical since discovery requires an audience. He pummels colleagues for cherishing cliches now defunct and in chapters on ``counter-factuals'' (what-ifs) and the role of magic in human calculations sets the stage for posing to economists ``the American Question'' (``. . . then why aren't you rich?''), along with the flat conclusion that economists cannot predict economic results, though some accept cash for trying. (Oct.)