THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE ECONOMIST AS ADVOCATE.  What's the point of developing an intellectual apparatus that helps you understand the world if you can't play with designing a better world?  But don't let your preconceptions overinfluence your modelling.  Tyler Cowen offers his impression of blind spots, on the left and on the right.  Arnold Kling revises and extends in both directions, and David Leonhardt offers additional suggestions, this time to readers of the legacy press. Ezra Klein weighs in with observations more practical and less theoretical, provoking further thoughts from Tyler Cowen.  Kevin Drum offers rebuttal and clarification from the left.

It's Spring Break at Northern Illinois University, but there might be a quiz on this later.