As someone who studied economics and works as an economist, I agree economics today is full of bull$h^t and biased "experts" and politicking masquerading as leg

As someone who studied economics and works as an economist, I agree economics today is full of bull$h^t and biased "experts" and politicking masquerading as legit social science work, I see it daily. And it goes on in mainstream and heterodox economics, in industry and in academia. (I'd preferred to call my job something like "statistician focused on economics and finance" - not economist, but it didn't fit on the business card) I just wanted to point out $1000 an hour pay is a quite common amount paid to any/all professions when law firms needs an outside expert opinion for a case. This $ is not unique to company merger cases nor economists. e.g. if a lawsuit needs a medical expert or engineering expert it's likely they are getting paid ~$1000 an hour for this time. And I don't doubt the clients are being billed way more than that - $1000 is just the expert's cut. Not defending anything, just pointing out this amount is what law firms commonly pay for outside "professional expert" opinion work.