`The interest of the profession is in pursuing its analysis in a language that's inaccessible to laypeople and even some economists [...] What we've done is monopolise this kind of expertise, and we of all people know how that gives us power.'

Every economist I interviewed agreed that conflicts of interest were highly problematic for the scientific integrity of their field - but only tenured ones were willing to go on the record. `In economics and finance, if I'm trying to decide whether I'm going to write something favourable or unfavourable to bankers, well, if it's favourable that might get me a dinner in Manhattan with movers and shakers,' Pfleiderer said to me. `I've written articles that wouldn't curry favour with bankers but I did that when I had tenure.'