Oh, I agree about avoiding the political tar baby. But economics aren't inherently partisan. It takes politicians to turn the metaphysics of economics into codified, etched-in-stone religions.

Economist/historian Robert Heilbroner aptly described it as the "worldly philosophy." His book by that title was the first to finally make sense of disparate theories of economics. He seemed wary of extremists and seemed to embrace the compromise economic system of the era in which that book was first published, the 1950s. All things considered that era's economic policy was probably the best/least bad, although it's difficult to say for certain given the huge shifts in employment. And he deftly dodges Ayn Rand's influence, or simply failed to anticipate it's populist appeal a few decades later. In her lifetime she was generally regarded as a bit eccentric, to put it mildly.