I just came across this video of a modern MMA guy who goes to expose a Chinese martial arts "master". The MMA guy kicks the crap out of the Tai Chi master in 12 seconds. It's hard to watch...

... but, I can't pretend there is no parallel between the Tai Chi "master" and many top-flight academic economist "masters". Just as the Kung Fu master protects himself from real competition, leading econ. journals actually have rules protecting leading economists from criticism.

Just as the Tai Chi guru shows his arts with demonstrations on fawning students, the academic economist's work is evaluated by peers whose careers are closely intertwined.

This is how you can explain two Harvard PhDs publishing a cross country income study in the QJE that doesn't correctly control for latitude. https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2015/12/19/a-replication-in-economics-does-genetic-distance-to-the-us-predict-development/

Or, how you get a Clark medal winner, MIT don, and ex-Econometrica Editor who doesn't quite understand the Malthusian model. http://douglaslcampbell.blogspot.com/2018/02/on-uses-and-abuses-of-economath.html

Interestingly, there was outrage at the MMA guy for exposing those classical martial arts frauds, and I'll confess, I also felt some blowback, although not nearly as bad as that guy...