If you were to make a list of the questions economics needs to answer what would be on that list?

Most assuredly, why economics theories FAIL to explain what really happens in the real world.

In a very practical sense, I would want to know how the stock market and various other mediums of financial exchange rise and fall. Hundreds of economists have tried to explain just what causes a stock or commodity to rise and to fall in price, and so far we only have some general ideas. We know that the "investor climate" plays a role, but can't predict with great certainty the day a stock will actually bounce up or fall down. We know good or bad news has some impact, but it is usually temporary (such as when a company releases earnings estimates, or when the Fed makes an announcement).

Also, we must be able to answer contagion, how economic consequences in one region or market spread to another. As the world becomes more tightly knit economically, contagion becomes a bigger problem. For example, the housing bubble burst in the US has had great negative consequences in nations far removed from the US housing industry; a currency crisis in one nation will often spread like wildfire to regional nations (witness the Asian and Russian financial crises of the late 1990s).

Another question would be, just WHEN is globalism going to actually make the price of labor (and goods) equalize. Since labor is so much cheaper in poor nations, we have outsourcing. But outsourcing is causing a massive reduction in the labor force, especially in the US industrial sector. The theory goes:

1. Those workers will re-educate and move into service sectors.

2. As poor nations become wealthier, the labor costs will rise, and therefore will reach some sort of equilibrium.

Economists haven't proven just when, or even if, these things may happen.

we are so technologically advance these days that it seems like we should be able to design a practical, growth friendly monetary system that does not allow for corruption and government destruction of the currency as experienced by many societies in the past, how would that monetary system be?

what economic incentives can be created in government so that it is motivated to spend at least as possible? Maybe we should give them shocks everytime they go over an approved budget.

how could you design a bank, that can lend all the funds it has but at the same time avoid any possibilities of bankruns? maybe have the saver be the lender...

How do you provide food and shelter for people who cannot or will not make themselves financially self sufficient? These would be - the elderly, the lazy, the not-very-bright, the severely disabled, the horribly smelly, chronic alcoholics / substance abusers, and released felons.