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Economic failures are pillars of economists' success

By Si Tingting (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-27 08:27

They are the pied pipers who couldn't lead the economic evils into the river. But still it rains money when they speak.

Economists may have failed to see the global financial crisis coming but that doesn't mean they can't make money by lecturing on "how to tackle it".

The worry and fear that the economic crisis has unleashed has prompted people to pay hundreds, thousands and even tens of thousands of yuan to attend top economists' lectures.

Last week, a newspaper in Jilin province reported that the "attendance fee" for China's A-list economists had risen tenfold in the past three years. And the "most expensive" among the Chinese economists is Larry Lang Xianping, professor of Chinese University of Hong Kong, who charges 120,000 yuan ($17,500) for a public lecture.

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Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman was on his first lecture tour to China last week, too. The "great prophet" not only got royal treatment, but also made a cool "4 million yuan ($580,000) on the tour".

People paid up to 5,800 yuan just to attend his lecture and up to 58,000 yuan to hear him speak and "share a meal" with him.

The newspaper report has prompted some people to start a blogsphere where the majority view is that the economists stop spending so much time making money.

Others say they should not be paid anything to speak because wittingly or unwittingly, they become spokespersons for certain vested interests.

The global economic crisis has made people hungry for new theories, ideas, or tips on how to make money. Plus, people love to hear good things like the economic nightmare is over, the economy is bottoming out and good days may be back soon, said Wang Qiang, PR manager of a company that has co-hosted many economics forums.

"I don't think economists can provide solutions to so many people's problems. What they can offer is just some pep talk," Wang said. But pep talk can boost people's confidence and, as Premier Wen Jiabao has said, confidence can be "more valuable than gold".