Danger - Economists at Work: The joke that can damage your children's welfare

I must admit at the outset that I only studied economics for a year. At the end of the undergraduate year, I sat an exam on the subject and passed. It was, as I recall it, a close-run thing however.

A number of us had already provoked the exam adjudicators by turning up late. Students were allowed into the exam hall up to twenty minutes after the exams had started, and this being the late 1960s, it was very cool to affect nonchalance by entering ten minutes or so late after everyone else had settled down. Such a late arrival not only gave the required appearance of casual unconcern, but also caused considerable disruption, especially if the latecomer was seated in the middle of a row of scibblers. Working one's way down the line of desks, loudly muttering ‘Excuse me’, ‘So sorry’, ‘Excuse me’, and so on was guaranteed to arouse the ire of diligent student and conscientious adjudicator alike.