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As finance relates to economics, many academic economists would pass it just fine. The anti-intellectualism of attacking models has become really disconcerting

As finance relates to economics, many academic economists would pass it just fine. The anti-intellectualism of attacking models has become really disconcerting. Should we start dismissing coders for using abstractions, that solve real problems, with no ties to the reality of the machines running the code? If you make a statement about how X will result in Y, you have some model upon which your idea is based. That can be critiqued and studied to see if X does in fact result in Y. Everyone uses models in their thinking without realizing it.

mindslight 11y ago
The attack occurs because models shift from being descriptive to prescriptive. For example, interest rates. A large part of why they're so low is that technology has enabled tracking everyone and everything, essentially guaranteeing that people cannot skip out on debts. Ever-lowering interest rates is what has caused housing prices to shoot through the roof (most people budget for a house in terms of monthly rent payed to the bank). Mainstream economists take these conditions as unassailable facts, create models based around them, and then advocate for policy that's consistent with the model. But every (worthwhile) model is consistent with the system it was developed for, so what they are essentially doing is simply advocating for the status quo while fortifying and obscuring their inbuilt assumptions. Policy needs to be debated in terms of the bigger picture - does it make sense that saving is so heavily discouraged? does it make sense that there is a dossier built up on every person that determines where they can live and their general station in life? does it make sense that the only way to preserve one's wealth is to play the Wall St casino? does it make sense to make buying a home so easy while essentially erasing the concept of ownership? does it make sense that prices should always be going up when competition wins out by lowering them? If these assumptions start being examined, long term financial instruments are indeed going to act weird in response. But the function of the economy should be to optimize for us, not to optimize us for itself. And yes, we should dismiss coders who attempt to force their abstractions onto us (ie proprietary network protocols)

mindslight 11y ago

The attack occurs because models shift from being descriptive to prescriptive. For example, interest rates. A large part of why they're so low is that technology has enabled tracking everyone and everything, essentially guaranteeing that people cannot skip out on debts. Ever-lowering interest rates is what has caused housing prices to shoot through the roof (most people budget for a house in terms of monthly rent payed to the bank). Mainstream economists take these conditions as unassailable facts, create models based around them, and then advocate for policy that's consistent with the model. But every (worthwhile) model is consistent with the system it was developed for, so what they are essentially doing is simply advocating for the status quo while fortifying and obscuring their inbuilt assumptions. Policy needs to be debated in terms of the bigger picture - does it make sense that saving is so heavily discouraged? does it make sense that there is a dossier built up on every person that determines where they can live and their general station in life? does it make sense that the only way to preserve one's wealth is to play the Wall St casino? does it make sense to make buying a home so easy while essentially erasing the concept of ownership? does it make sense that prices should always be going up when competition wins out by lowering them? If these assumptions start being examined, long term financial instruments are indeed going to act weird in response. But the function of the economy should be to optimize for us, not to optimize us for itself. And yes, we should dismiss coders who attempt to force their abstractions onto us (ie proprietary network protocols)