&gt; Economists understand the theories behind money and wealth creation<p>Isaac Asimov was trained as a chemist before becoming a science fiction writer. He relates the story where someone asked him what kind of glue to use for gluing together certain materials. Asimov said he had no idea, and the person walked away shaking his head and presumably thinking &quot;some chemist this guy is&quot;.<p>Understanding glues and adhesion is at least one level of abstraction higher than knowing fundamentals of chemistry.<p>Richard Feynman also had a great essay about how understanding quantum physics doesn&#x27;t allow you to figure out everyday physics questions (eg., At what temperature does gold melt?). In theory it should be possible to derive the melting point of gold from quantum physics, but it&#x27;s impossibly difficult to do so.<p>Likewise, creating wealth (doing business, trading stocks, etc.) is probably several levels of abstraction higher than knowing the theories behind wealth creation.