An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
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Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Lars P. Syll — Blog Public trust in economists
Economists can take consolation that they beat politicians anyway.
Trust in science? Yes, but economics is NOT a science Links on Lars Syll on ‘Public trust in economists’*
When things get serious, there is NO In-God-We-Trust. Everybody trusts in science even religious people who reject science as too rational, incomprehensible, abstract, limited, or emotionally unsatisfactory. Every time priests of whatever denomination#1 board an aircraft or undergo surgery they practically admit that they trust more in science than in their particular faith.
It is quite natural#2 and unavoidable that sooner or later science look-alikes appear that exploit the prestige/authority of science. This is pretty much like counterfeiters who exploit the difference between the purchasing value of money and the material value of the money token. Fake is profitable.
Look-alike scientists produce cargo cult science: “They’re doing everything right. The form is perfect. ... But it doesn’t work. ... So I call these things cargo cult science because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they’re missing something essential.”
Economics is a cargo cult science. More precisely, there is political economics and theoretical economics. The main differences are: (i) The goal of political economics is to successfully push an agenda, the goal of theoretical economics is to successfully explain how the actual economy works. (ii) In political economics anything goes; in theoretical economics, the scientific standards of material and formal consistency are observed.
The fact is that (i) theoretical economics (= science) had been hijacked from the very beginning by political economists (= agenda pushers), and (ii), political economics has produced NOTHING of scientific value in the last 200+ years. Economics started as Political Economy and never got above the proto-scientific level.
As a result, economics does NOT deserve the trust that science has rightfully earned over 2300+ years. On the contrary. Economists are NOT scientists but agenda pushers and deserve all the contempt for cheaters, clowns, confused confusers, and useful idiots in the political Circus Maximus.#3-#17
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ReplyDeleteTrust in science? Yes, but economics is NOT a science
ReplyDeleteLinks on Lars Syll on ‘Public trust in economists’*
When things get serious, there is NO In-God-We-Trust. Everybody trusts in science even religious people who reject science as too rational, incomprehensible, abstract, limited, or emotionally unsatisfactory. Every time priests of whatever denomination#1 board an aircraft or undergo surgery they practically admit that they trust more in science than in their particular faith.
It is quite natural#2 and unavoidable that sooner or later science look-alikes appear that exploit the prestige/authority of science. This is pretty much like counterfeiters who exploit the difference between the purchasing value of money and the material value of the money token. Fake is profitable.
Look-alike scientists produce cargo cult science: “They’re doing everything right. The form is perfect. ... But it doesn’t work. ... So I call these things cargo cult science because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they’re missing something essential.”
Economics is a cargo cult science. More precisely, there is political economics and theoretical economics. The main differences are: (i) The goal of political economics is to successfully push an agenda, the goal of theoretical economics is to successfully explain how the actual economy works. (ii) In political economics anything goes; in theoretical economics, the scientific standards of material and formal consistency are observed.
The fact is that (i) theoretical economics (= science) had been hijacked from the very beginning by political economists (= agenda pushers), and (ii), political economics has produced NOTHING of scientific value in the last 200+ years. Economics started as Political Economy and never got above the proto-scientific level.
As a result, economics does NOT deserve the trust that science has rightfully earned over 2300+ years. On the contrary. Economists are NOT scientists but agenda pushers and deserve all the contempt for cheaters, clowns, confused confusers, and useful idiots in the political Circus Maximus.#3-#17
Egmont Kakarot-Handtke
References
https://axecorg.blogspot.com/2019/12/trust-in-science-yes-but-economics-is.html