REAL ECONOMISTS DON'T DO INTEREST RATE FORECASTS ON TV. Russell at Cafe Hayek is thinking about the public image of economists, and he provides the Quote of the Day.

It may be the result of our penchant as economists for using the word "competition." I use it all the time. I understand it to mean the propensity of humans to truck, barter and exchange. But for too many, the word conveys the zero-sum game world of sports. Maybe we should stop using it.

I, too, use "competition" a lot, to refer to the discovery and consummation of gains from trade. Let's see, wasn't "intercourse" an archaic term for "commerce?" Time to take a holiday.