@ Manish Banerjee; My Friend Manish may not be aware of Economists, that Prof. Joseph E. Stiglitz, a world renowed Nobel prize winning Economist, predicted the Global financial Crisis, 2007 well in advance, and I am little doubtful that when economies are in crisis its only the economists who realise the depth of the problem and come to rescue, but I also agree that there are failures when economists work under politicians and are bound to follow the latter's vested interests, like our honourable PM, Manmohan Singh. 

>Amartya Sen does make sense to me when he warns that excessive preoccupation with measures to enhance growth is undesirable since the poor may not be able to hop on to the growth bus.

Is an Amartya Sen  needed tell us that? Ask the boy scavanging garbage from city dump. As a matter of fact even Manmohan Singh & his gang of fundamentalists of GDP growth know that well. But soul & agenda of  money-making do not always gell.

While I agree with Manish, Amartya Sen does make sense to me when he warns that excessive preoccupation with measures to enhance growth is undesirable since the poor may not be able to hop on to the growth bus.

Economists are not be trusted. Economists are just busybodies who do not have clue about the state of the economy. It is often asked what is economics or economists are all about since they never could predict the next econonic melt-down. Reason, much as Amartya Sen or Jagdish Bhagawati joust for media space , they will not determine course of the economy. Annonymous business fixers & their political frontmen will.

Over there in United States, economy is in the up-trend resiling to 3.2% growth from negative at the height of the recent melt-down & down & out much reviled banks & their their backroom wonder-kids are fahionable again. Economists as usual are talking irrelevances in class-rooms or at seminars.