The question of the usefulness of economics to society is probably also a reason why, at the aforementioned gathering of Nobel Laureates, the closing panel discussion was entitled “How Useful is Economics – How is Economics Useful?” 3.
The lessons of the crisis  Ladies and gentlemen, Christoph Schmidt, chair of the German Council of Economic Experts, was quoted in yesterday’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper as saying BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  that, “Despite the uncertainty surrounding our statements, our work is still important because we can contribute to imposing a limited amount of order on a complex and uncertain world without feigning false certainties.” The job of economics is to explain economic interrelationships and to use these explanations as a basis for making economic policy designed to increase public welfare.