Me, Too

Arnold Kling of EconLog, quoting from his forthcoming book, says this about the incomprehensibility of what most economists write:

I believe that some of the fault lies with the top graduate schools in economics, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I obtained my Ph.D. The focus on mathematical training in these programs is so intense that they tend to produce a sort of idiot-savant, competent only to publish in academic journals. It pains me to see economists for whom expounding economic principles and speaking in plain English are mutually exclusive activities.

Precisely. I began Ph.D. work in economics at M.I.T. in the early '60s. I quit, fairly promptly, because I found the program depressingly, deadeningly sterile. I'm sure it only got worse.