Story telling for Economists

When asked to tell the facts or it’s time to tell the truth, economists tell stories.

Anyways, economics is the ongoing story of every society. 

DONALD N.McCLOSKEY has rightly captured it when he says, “Plainly and routinely, ninety per cent of what economists do is such storytelling. Yet even in the other ten per cent, in the part more obviously dominated by models and metaphors, the economist tells stories. The applied economist can be viewed as a realistic novelist or a realistic playwright, a Thomas Hardy or a George Bernard Shaw. The theorist, too, may be viewed as a teller of stories, though a non-realist, whose plots and characters have the same relation to truth as those in Gulliver’s Travels or A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Economics is saturated with narration.” 

The Central Banks of all countries, the World Bank and the IMF, the recent World Economic Forum and other think tanks worth the name are basically story houses telling us all sorts of stories of the past and mostly focussed about the future, the damn thing about which is that it always comes.

Whatever it is, but what is to be understood is that all economists are story tellers. They create, design, mount, weaponise, discredit, resist narratives. Economists are in the business of creating narratives and telling stories. 

Most of which we people believe. Life is what becomes of us when we interpret the stories economists tell us. What newspapers carry are stories. Don’t we read success story of this country and that company. Only failure is reported as news. And Carlyle has already called economics as a dismal science. And then there is something strange about this economics – if two economics tell us stories diametrically opposite even then both can get (and do get) the Nobel Prize. The only difference is someone of them get little late. The funny thing about economics and hence economists is that the eyes are always opened late and even then there is nothing wrong as long as there are stories to tell. Economics is the only science (hope it is) that can be proved right or long in distant future but still the stories told are to be believed.

And here we need to remember in all humbleness what another leading story teller from economics told us in his characteristic comforting words, “In the long run we all are dead.” 

The blessings economists enjoy here is that they live long in stories told years after their death. 

Surely, the day and the moment an economist has no story to tell, no narrative to create; he or she ceases to be what he or she claims to be – the Economist. 

One common problem of economists causes worries – when two economists speak; we have three opinions- stories. The stories economics tell define the course of history. 

When Marie-Antoinette, the Queen of France said, “Let them eat cake” the great story of the French Revolution took a new turn. The economic context was related to people not getting (affording) bread. And when people cannot afford bread, wine is far away. (And in case of French, it is bread and wine and not mere butter.) Amazingly and interestingly, Marie-Antoinette did not talk about wine. May be that was her being very characteristic French. Wine is precious than cake and may be she did not want to confuse people by getting in the complexity of economics. All revolutions are outcomes of the stories told- chiefly by the economists. History is a long story told by the economists and only they can explain it and tell it better. 

So to conclude, if you are an economist or anyone aspires to become one; learning to tell economic stories (superimposing them on all other stories) very well. A story told well can even go on to win the Nobel. Every presidential debate is a clash between two distinct stories. Recently Donald Trump told his story and became the 47th  President of America. His earlier story won and made his the 45th President of America. 

And when Trump said in his inaugural speech, “Drill, baby drill.” The economy became pregnant with another story to unfold. Let us see how this Trump story with a rhyme drills further. 

Economics and economists are lucky in the sense that they have powerful and perennial sources of story telling such as poverty, inequality and all that. And now, added to all that economics is geo-economics now, thanks to the ever shifting sands of geopolitics. You can be smart and yet not rich. You can be from Harvard and still out of a decent job.  You can be an economist and yet not rich while strangely enough there are many who listen and believe the stories economists tell and get vastly richer. (“If you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?’ is an invalid question in economics and about economists, kindly note.)

“We are basically storytellers,” wrote Robert Lucas, “creators of make-believe economic systems.” Economists create a version of reality by telling their stories. 

Knowledge Fountain’s CogniInfra offers a unique opportunity to learn story telling for economists (Economists as story tellers). cogniInfra has designed a unique program in the art and craft of telling economic stories. This is the first of its kind program for economists. 

It is an investment of enduring value. The ROI will be there for you to see. It pays to become story telling economist. 

To receive detailed program brochure call +91-8600178825 

 Email: prakashalmeida@knowledgefountain.org