This piece in the Past Learnings Series is based on a hitherto unpublished internal Regulatory Policy Institute Paper dating from 2012. The wider context was the self-assessment process among economists that was triggered by the financial collapse of 2008, a process that has continued since. It is anchored by the question: what, if anything, is economics good for? The ‘Onion’ (see Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov) is a candidate saving grace.