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Economics is what economists do

John Maynard Keynes, one of the most prominent figures in modern economics, has this to say;

"Another definition is Economics is what Economists do. John Maynard Keynes described what he thought economists do in Essays in Biography in 1933. An economist, he wrote, must

possess a rare combination of gifts. He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher-in some degree. He must understand symbols and speak in words. He must contemplate the particular in terms off the general, and touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. He must study the present in light of the past for purposes of the future. No part of man's nature or his institutions must lie entirely outside his regard. He must be purposeful and disinterested in a simultaneous mood; as aloof and incorruptible as an artist, yet sometimes as near the earth as a politician."

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