The lesson from sub-prime is that, rather than ignore financial markets, we should, as far as possible, facilitate their ability to function. As if we can ignore them anyway. What are such economists thinking? Are they advocating that the UK simply refuses to pay its creditors – imposing a "hard default"? No, they think they're being clever by relying on "soft default", whereby a country lowers its debt obligations through a combination of inflation and currency depreciation. But, of course, no one is fooled.