I am not an economist, nor do I play one on TV. My current studies (mostly maths, modelling and statistics) do contain a sizeable econ component, however, so I pay attention to these things.
I also have plenty of other things I could be doing with my time. Would you appreciate me talking at length about the pros and cons of financial transaction taxes?
Yes, please!
The last point reminded me of speculation from the recent LessWrong article Conspiracy Theories as Agency Fictions:
Before thinking about these points and debating them I strongly recommend you read the full article.