We're loving these economists who make economics less economical.

Just this week there's "undercover economist" Tim Harford on Slate talking about the hopelessness of repressing "irrepressible markets" such as those around healthy tuck-shops and big-game tickets. He came out here and the Listener spoke to him about the why globalisation is good for almost everybody.

Then there's the Freakonomics guys Dubner and Levitt (book's in all good bookshops), in the NY Times, most recently discussing how to create a market for organ transplants.

And in the New Yorker, James Surowiecki, who we nearly persuaded to do Five Minutes With ... before he piked at the last beg, looks at how much factors like chance and context play even in multibillion-dollar markets such as aerospace.

I doubt I know a great deal more about economics now than before, but if the subject is indeed more of an art than a science, I can see a few of the brushstrokes now.