Most columnists write about things that interest them, about things they hold dear or that they feel qualified to discuss. Many are experts in their field. I certainly am not an expert at anything and, if the truth be told, I have a kind of aversion to experts. I simply enjoy "the act of writing". This is something similar to Arthur Koestler’s The Act of Creation but less formulaic and less predictable. As it goes, I have a greater interest in literary nonfiction, increasingly in essay writing, than I do in the political economy, the area in which I received formal training in higher education. I should probably not have let the editor know this. Anyway, the first 15 years of my professional life were spent trying to make it as a journalist, and the next 15-20 in and out of academia and public policy-making. I have picked up a few things along the way. So, like most columnists and public intellectuals, I am sometimes asked terribly difficult questions at the most awkward times. The ...

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