‘The Only Ones Who Don’t Seem To Understand Are The Economists,’ Said The Economist

Presenting the latest weekly anecdote from Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management
‘The only ones who don’t seem to understand are the economists,’ said the economist, a Nobel Laureate. He was discussing the importance of narrative in society. ‘Economists talk about interest rates, price-to-earnings ratios, and obscure formulas as if we’ve arrived from a different planet. These things don’t drive people. Stories drive people.’ Of course, economists may not know how to tell a good bedtime story, but they sure can put a room filled with middle-aged nerds to sleep.
Which may explain why sociologists, anthropologists, linguists and just about every other scientific group studies the importance of narrative, but not economists.
‘I’m particularly intrigued by something coming out of the medical field called Mathematical Epidemiology,’ he said, using a really complex term to describe the spread of infectious disease. ‘Scientists are becoming aware of the spread of thought viruses, memes, idea-microbes. It turns out they’re contagious just like diseases.’

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Feb 5, 2017.