What prohibition's failure means for the legalisation of cannabis - BBC News Economists have a bit of an image problem. People think we shamelessly massage statistics, overconfidently make terrible predictions, and are no fun at drinks parties. Perhaps some of the blame for this lies with the man who, a century ago, was probably the most famous economist in the world - Irving Fisher. It was Fisher who notoriously claimed, in October 1929, the stock market had reached "a permanently high plateau". Nine days later, came the huge stock market crash that led to the Great Depression. As for parties, the best that can be said for Fisher was he was a generous host. As Mark Thornton records in The Economics of Prohibition, one of Fisher's dinner guests wrote: "While I ate right through my succession of delicious courses, [Fisher] dined on a vegetable and a raw egg." A fitness fanatic, he avoided meat, tea, coffee and chocolate. He didn't drink