The Economists' Hour

The Rise of Economists in Government

In the mid-twentieth century, economists were the outsiders of American power. Figures like Paul Volcker started as mere human calculators in the bowels of the Federal Reserve, while leaders like William McChesney Martin openly mocked the profession as a group of basement-dwelling theorists. Presidents from Roosevelt to Eisenhower viewed them as impractical mathematicians, and the Supreme Court once dismissed economic evidence as irrelevant to matters of law.

By the 1970s, however, a profound revolution shifted the seat of authority from bureaucrats to the disciples of the market. As the post-war boom faltered, a new generation of thinkers argued that the "dismal science" held a magical promise: the ability to eliminate scarcity through policy. This era, the "Economists' Hour," saw these specialists move from the basement to the highest echelons of government. They successfully advocated for the end of military conscription, the deregulation of massive industries, and the assignment of dollar values to human life to justify policy decisions.

This movement was fueled by a fundamental shift in faith. Where previous leaders like John Maynard Keynes believed the economy was a "chair on wheels" that required the steady hand of government, the new guard preached that markets were self-correcting and policy makers should simply get out of the way. This "In Markets We Trust" mantra found a powerful ally in the corporate elite and the rising political right, who provided the funding and political muscle to turn academic theories into a global reality.

The results of this revolution were a study in contradictions. On one hand, the global embrace of markets lifted billions out of poverty and created a world of unprecedented convenience. On the other, the single-minded pursuit of efficiency came at a staggering social cost. By focusing on the size of the economic pie rather than how it was sliced, leaders presided over a period where growth slowed, the middle class stagnated, and life expectancy for the poor began to decline. Ultimately, the triumph of market logic transformed society, replacing the messy debates of democracy with the cold calculations of the spreadsheet and leaving nations wealthy in goods but increasingly fractured in spirit.