Co-winner of the first Nobel Prize in economics. The profile, by Arild Sæther and Ib E. Eriksen, is devastating. Frisch became an ardent supporter of central planning. The authors quote him writing
The blinkers will fall once and for all at the end of the 1960s (perhaps before). At this time the Soviets will have surpassed the US in industrial production. But then it will be too late for the West to see the truth. (Frisch 1961a)
To me, the moral of the story is that you can be very confident, highly respected, and completely wrong.
Another way to put it is, expertise does not transfer well. Paul Krugman is a Nobel prize winning international trade theorist. But on other subjects, he’s like any other op-ed writer. He has strong opinions backed by little or no evidence.
I don’t mean to pick on Krugman. Think James Watson’s racist remarks, or Robert Merton and Myron Scholes’ failed hedge fund, or Paul Dirac’s nonsensical, embarrassing Nobel prize speech on economics. Many (most? all?) brilliant minds are hacks in other subjects.
I understand why some say there should be no Nobel prize in economics (yeah yeah Bank of Sweden prize, whatever). It is because experts in narrow areas suddenly become go-to authoritative figures in any area loosely connected to economics or the economy (not the same thing).
To be fair, some appear to reject this authority. I read that Gerard Debreu frustrated French television by refusing to prognisticate on the economy. And Tom Sargent was in an ad recently in which he said he had no idea where interest rates were headed.