There are a great many honest and competent people in economics. The natural habitat for honest, competent professionals is the second-tier journal.

In economics, they get published in third-tier journals and then tacitly ignored by everyone Important. Because the Important People publish mainly in the top-tier journals (whereas in a field like physics, even the Very, Very Important people don't regularly publish in top-tier journals - this definitely helps build recognition and credibility for the second tier, which I would argue is more important anyway).

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.