If economists were so smart ...

This is from The Non-economist's Economist, a review of The Affluent Society & Other Writings, 1952-1967, a collection of writings by John Kenneth Galbraith:

At the 1955 stock-market hearings, Galbraith was followed at the witness table by the aging speculator and "adviser to presidents" Bernard M. Baruch. The committee wanted to know what the Wall Street legend thought of the learned economist. "I know nothing about him to his detriment," Baruch replied. "I think economists as a rule—and it is not personal to him—take for granted they know a lot of things. If they really knew so much, they would have all of the money, and we would have none."