================= HES POSTING ================= Tony, Isn't there an implicit view of history (Whiggish or cynical?) in contemporary economics which maintains, without reflection, that economics IS the application of tools; therefore the quality of the data (to which the tools are applied) is not central to the operation. The past is, by definition, inferior to the present because the tools were less 'impressive'. This is not an "harangue [of] of neo-classisists ... using the pretence of intellectual history"; but a (perhaps misplaced) concern about quality. Robert Leeson University of Western Ontario ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]