The more important reason is that the research itself provides an important long-run perspective on the issues that we face on a day-to-day basis.

Economics is a very difficult subject. I've compared it to trying to learn how to repair a car when the engine is running.

Monetary policy cannot do much about long-run growth, all we can try to do is to try to smooth out periods where the economy is depressed because of lack of demand

The economist John Maynard Keynes said that in the long run, we are all dead. If he were around today he might say that, in the long run, we are all on Social Security and Medicare.