Economists are trained to think about eventual outcomes and work backwards

From Europe Tries to Stave Off a Reckoning by Steven Erlanger. An interesting insight.

“Economists are trained to think about eventual outcomes and work backwards, and that’s the way financial markets function, too,” said Charles Wyplosz, an economist at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. “That’s 180 degrees from how politicians function. They ask themselves about tomorrow or next week or maybe the next election and solve problems as they come. So they’re always behind the markets.”