Aided by the rise of mathematical modelling and the protective cover of jargon, economists have become some of the most highly venerated, rarely rebuked intellectuals of our times (even when their track records have proven spotty, at best). But economic issues don’t just deserve the attention and opinions of the general public – they demand it for meaningful social progress to be made. In this excerpt from a lecture at the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), cleverly animated by Cognitive Media, the South Korean-born economist Ha-Joon Chang argues that leaving matters of economics exclusively in the hands of experts risks perpetuating the status quo and all the social ills that go along with it.