But to paraphrase Lord Keynes, in the short run we are all exhausted; a counter-parade of the dismal scientists will show you how free trade expands trade, which means more jobs and a higher standard of living for all.

He and other dismal scientists do concede the social value of good works - particularly when the beneficiaries include those doing the good works.

But the dismal scientists are not running for office; many political realists agreed with Alexander's use.

Nobody, it seems - not even the dismal scientists - is ready to spoil the victory celebration.

Don't ask the dismal scientists.

Wannabe movers and shakers pine for the days when Cabinet officers and captains of industry could not get through the day without advice from a dismal scientist.

But now, just when you may have been beginning to think that it was safe to ignore the dismal scientists, Burton Malkiel, an economist at Princeton University and the author of a number of no-nonsense guides to personal investing, is back to spoil the fun.

She has shed more tears lately, but not over insults from dismal scientists in Washington research circles.

But economists, ever the dismal scientists, were skeptical that all would go as planned.