These are dismal times for the dismal science, or so the complaint goes. The main charge is that economics failed to predict the financial crisis and has few ideas about how to prevent a repetition.

On Monday, the annual Nobel prize for economics is awarded (not technically a Nobel, in fact, but let that pass), and with it a prominent plinth of credibility from which to preach to the world. Given the state of the discipline, should the Nobel be awarded at all?