I PROPOSE TO TAKE ON one of the greatest libels in the English language: the description of economics as "the dismal science." I hold a different view-that when it comes to seeing the potential in even the most desperate citizens of this Earth, our economists, business leaders, and champions of a commercial republic often are far ahead of our progressives, artists, and humanitarians ... and therein lies my tale.Dismal science was born as an epithet meant to dismiss those arguing that slaves deserved their freedom. In fact, the first recorded mention of the phrase occurred in 1849. The caricature of dismal science was not unrelated to a great debate in England that, in our nation, would be resolved by civil war.
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