If we are happy being deceived how can we improve?

The global economy which is limping along, is not going to do any better this year, thinks Joseph Stiglitz. With so many Nobel Prize winning economists around they should have foreseen and prevented the crisis in 2007-08, and be able to suggest ways of kick-starting growth. After all they have had plenty of practice. Starting with the Great Depression of 1929 there have been at least 12 boom-bust cycles in the US since 1940. Some say that we should learn from old masters, such as Hyman Minsky and John Maynard Keynes, whereas others says that the world has changed so the old theories are outdated. If economists were able to predict markets then they would be billionaires. Turns out that professors of economics and finance are poor at making money from market investments while those in maths and computers are highly successful. Economic theories cannot account for human behavior so studies on behavioral science have assumed great importance. Successful politicians have an instinctive understanding of human behavior which they exploit to grab and hang on to power. Human beings live in large societies so practice deception all the time. That maybe why they ignore all the lies that politicians tell and vote for them. Donald Trump is leading among the Republican candidates for the presidential election later this year. According to Politifact, 76% of his statements are false and 16 statements are in the ' Pants on Fire ' category, which means whoppers. Which means that his supporters do not care that he is lying to them, even though journalists are pointing out his lies. Seems that chimpanzees also tend to lie if they can get away with it, so it maybe an instinctive behavior in humans. Perhaps they are oversimplifying human behavior. In the US, the richest country in the world, people worry about security and about maintaining US superiority over the rest of the world. In poor countries like India people want handouts, such as food and money. Thus, Donald Trump says he can make America great again because he is a billionaire whereas Rahul Gandhi, although also a billionaire, wants to stop any reforms because he can win elections by promising handouts. Financial investors look for short term gains, ignoring virtuous behavior while rewarding villains. Since human behavior is going to remain unpredictable the global economy will limp along. The rich will remain rich, the rest of us will scrape along.