>That would make the techniques less interesting to many economists, who are usually more concerned about giving policy recommendations than in making forecasts

>That would make the techniques less interesting to many economists, who are usually more concerned about giving policy recommendations than in making forecasts. Therein lies the real reason for the panoply broken economics models. They are more often used for the purpose of lobbying rather than for impartial prediction. Much of the profession (particularly the elites) only exists as an intellectual pretext for maintaining and perpetuating existing power structures. It's about as scientific as the departments of Marxist economics were in the former Soviet Union or the Vatican in 15th century Italy.