Another example is Keynes’s General Theory in 1936. Note that Hicks’s simplification of IS-LM was available in 1937. Then the same questions.
The General Theory itself contains the famous lines: “Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.” (p383) He continues: “(…) there are not many who are influenced by new theories after they are twenty-five or thirty years of age, so that the ideas which civil servants and politicians and even agitators apply to current events are not likely to be the newest.” Perhaps Keynes would have supported the idea of an Economic Supreme Court that keeps its knowledge up to date.
A third example is Jan Tinbergen’s 1936 model of the Netherlands (vide Barten (1988), with p48 highly amusing). The same questions.
The fourth example involves my own person at the Dutch Central Planning Bureau (CPB) around 1989-1991. This book already wins the argument without mentioning my own experience, but it would not be correct not to mention it. This book presents an analysis that has been suppressed by that bureau with abuse of power - see also my biographical appendix. Then the same questions.
Again, as above, there must be a warning about stagnation. My question “Would it not have been better if we had had Economic Supreme Courts at that time ?” is, admittedly, quite rhetoric, and may tend to sweep away deeper questions. It may suggest ideal Courts that always remain impartial and always come to the rescue. But also a Court can get stuck on misconceptions. Keynes and Tinbergen illustrate the point themselves by the famous criticism of Keynes (1939) of Tinbergen’s method. Two of the leading economists of their times did not agree ! Indeed, this is a powerful argument to make the concept of a Court doubtful. (And they did not disagree on policy - more public works - but rather on methodology.)
Interestingly, Frank Sulloway’s (1996) “Born to rebel” argues, roughly put, that first-borns tend to be more conservative and that later-borns are more open to new scientific findings. Van den Berg (2004) calls this finding into question. But an Economic Supreme Court packed with conservatives could be a recipe for stagnation anyway. [ [30]
To be sure: my question of ‘would it not have been better if…’ is not intended to be rhetoric, and I grant that a Court at times will be slow to take up a challenge.
There however is a proper analogy: In the same way, occasionally, a fireman is caught causing fires himself. But this does not cause us to abolish the whole fire-department. As said, the appendix contains an example constitutional amendment that tries to find the middle ground, something that is workable and a huge improvement compared to the current situation.