Why be an economist?

Past recipients of the Veblen-Commons Award have often begun by explaining how they became institutionalists, or what they foresee to be the future of institutionalism. My view of our future, you will see, scarcely justifies exuberant optimism such as: "I predict that the 1990s will be the decade of the institutionalist. The American Economics Association will announce no later than 1999 that the annual meetings will be devoted to two themes: The first will be, "The Resurgence o f Words in Economic Analysis," and the second will be, "A New Commitment to Policy Relevance in Economic Modelling." No one would believe any of this. More seriously, I would begin by noting that both how I became an institutionalist, and more fundamentally, why I went into economics, has a good deal to do with how 1 regard our discipline today. As some may know I grew up in Austin with Clarence Ayres as my neighbor