Word: cairncross
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...goes a long way to demolish Carlyle's famous description of economics as "the dismal science." Asked by Editor Loeb to clarify a point during the discussions, Dr. Walter Heller, a former presidential adviser, smilingly replied: "I purposely left that a little vague. I was following the Alex Cairncross dictum. His first rule when making a forecast is: Give either a number or a date, but never both. His second rule is: Never underestimate the power of a platitude. His third rule is: When the President asks you a question, remember that he doesn't know the answer...
...Yesterday's economists were often wrong," says Alexander Cairncross, the prime economic adviser to the British government, "but there was seldom enough statistical material to prove them so at once." Statistics that once took months to compile are now served up in days, or sometimes minutes, by computers. Economists still stand in awe of the modern maestro, Britain's late John Maynard Keynes, whose doctrines of central planning and high public spending made him the darling of the New Deal. Some statesmen have declared that the modern world needs a new Keynes. Though no single economist today commands...