There is nothing like a monarch’s pointed question to make the great and good squirm. Queen Elizabeth stumped her hosts at the London School of Economics by asking why no one had seen the financial crisis coming. Scholars at that and other universities should feel the sting: if they cannot be counted on to spot dangers to the economy, why have economists at all?

Some of Britain’s leading economic experts have now sent the Queen a reply. They point out that some did foresee the crisis, prominent economists included. What failed was the “collective imagination of many bright people”.