Hmm, Why Aren't We Happy Yet?

I came across an interesting article by a London economist who offers a lofty but pretty accurate assessment of the function of economics and how economics is only used to study " institutions such as markets, taxes and foreign trade would affect the happiness of people," but not necessarily how to make people happy. Richard Layard of the London School of Economics is the one writing this book titled "Happy" in which he offers the pyschological reasons of why money cannot necessarily buy people's happiness. I found this assertion to be very odd and very ironic coming from an economist to offer a pyschological perspective. I am not suggesting that economists don't care about people's welfare- they study the decisions made by consumers, producers, government, etc. and how the market works, but basically, not everyone wins and not everybody benefits from the market all the time. I would be curious to hear more about what Layard has to say about how people can be happier, not necessarily as a self-happy pamplet, but moreless as an offering from his perspective and personal experience as an economist.