Well, the “tend your own garden first” approach really sounds like he’s channelling Peterson. I’m warming to the idea; it bespeaks of a radical ethical humility.

But I also agree on Micro vs. Macro utility.

If you want a controlled experiment, you can’t get better than West vs. East Germany.

However, the point of paid macroeconomists isn’t to predict or understand the economy. They are paid to understand that whatever their paymasters wants to do anyway is clearly a good idea. “Oh man oh geeze getting correct predictions is hard.” Yeah. Sure it is.

Do you mean Scott Summer?

There are some real predictions out there — Scott Dumner Sumner comes to mind — but that’s a basically true position.

In other words, what wise people have said for centuries: you can only tend your garden. Once people stop seeing the whole business of life as changeable solely in their terms and on their say so, they can progress as individuals and that passes on the family with–if lucky–the neighbourhood following.