“Ideas in which economists have reposed the greatest confidence have been proved wrong and therewith, not surprisingly, the responding policy. And this has happened under circumstances which admit of no really plausible explanation, rationalization, or alibi—things in which we economists are more than minimally accomplished. There was, to be sure, more than a suspicion of error before; the evidence was highly adverse to the reputable ideas. But the heretics were a minority and the adverse evidence could be attributed to a lag. In economics, any inconvenient disassociation of effect from cause is always attributed to a lag. […]
In economics, hope and faith coexist with great scientific pretension and also a deep desire for respectability. […] Economists… are very decent men who have been substituting hope for reality, and hope unrequited does not sustain even an official economist forever.”

Galbraith, John Kenneth. 1970. “Professor Galbraith reluctantly recommends Wage‐Price Controls— The Cure for Runaway Inflation.” New York Times, June 7. P. 211

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