4 ms·

God Invented Economists To Make Astrologers Look Good

21 points by yesplorer 13y ago

spindritf 13y ago
> On past form, the winner will be an aging Anglophone, Caucasian male. He will also probably be a dangerous crank. So... much like the author of this rant? It's a cute quip in the title but there's nothing more to that article. Mood affiliation in its pure form. And Krugman is the notable exception? The guy who cheered the real estate bubble on?
jboynyc 13y ago
This column mentions Ha-Joon Chang, a great commentator on the discipline of economics from the inside. I really enjoyed this recording of a talk he gave at the LSE: http://www.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=1584 http://www.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/pub... That definitely has more substance than the submitted piece.
od2m 13y ago
Economics as a profession has been captured. Mainstream economics exists to do nothing more than justify the behaviour of politicians with the veneer of science. Keynesianism/Chicago school is simply not descriptive of reality, and when viewed through the lens of proper economics, is actually the transfer mechanism of wealth from the lower to upper classes: "Look, our best economists say we need to keep acting irresponsibly which just happens to enrich our wealthy benefactors!" Krugman is the highly decorated king of these idiot keynesians. Austrian economic theory is much more descriptive of reality (although probably not fully descriptive), and yet is cast as voodoo science because if followed correctly there's no opportunity to steal from us through debt and inflation: Government debt is bad, expansionary monetary policy is bad, most economic interventions will lead to unintended consequences worse than the original problem. When I talk to young economics graduates, many have never even HEARD of Austrian economic theory, let alone studied it in college. At some point in the future, this era will be looked back upon as a dark time in economics in the same way that the medical profession now looks back at seemingly valid theories at the time of "bad humors" causing disease. Our descendents will say "We can't believe those idiots thought they could just print money and spend themselves into debt and there would be no long term consequences." The king has no clothes.

21 points by yesplorer 13y ago

> On past form, the winner will be an aging Anglophone, Caucasian male. He will also probably be a dangerous crank. So... much like the author of this rant? It's a cute quip in the title but there's nothing more to that article. Mood affiliation in its pure form. And Krugman is the notable exception? The guy who cheered the real estate bubble on?

jboynyc 13y ago

This column mentions Ha-Joon Chang, a great commentator on the discipline of economics from the inside. I really enjoyed this recording of a talk he gave at the LSE: http://www.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=1584 http://www.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/pub... That definitely has more substance than the submitted piece.

od2m 13y ago

Economics as a profession has been captured. Mainstream economics exists to do nothing more than justify the behaviour of politicians with the veneer of science. Keynesianism/Chicago school is simply not descriptive of reality, and when viewed through the lens of proper economics, is actually the transfer mechanism of wealth from the lower to upper classes: "Look, our best economists say we need to keep acting irresponsibly which just happens to enrich our wealthy benefactors!" Krugman is the highly decorated king of these idiot keynesians. Austrian economic theory is much more descriptive of reality (although probably not fully descriptive), and yet is cast as voodoo science because if followed correctly there's no opportunity to steal from us through debt and inflation: Government debt is bad, expansionary monetary policy is bad, most economic interventions will lead to unintended consequences worse than the original problem. When I talk to young economics graduates, many have never even HEARD of Austrian economic theory, let alone studied it in college. At some point in the future, this era will be looked back upon as a dark time in economics in the same way that the medical profession now looks back at seemingly valid theories at the time of "bad humors" causing disease. Our descendents will say "We can't believe those idiots thought they could just print money and spend themselves into debt and there would be no long term consequences." The king has no clothes.