“Economics should never be treated as a science”
3 Aug
Economics should never be treated as a science. Its claims are not falsifiable, which is why economists can disagree so violently among themselves: a rarer spectacle in science, where disputes are usually resolved one way or another by hard data.
It is a branch of anthropology and psychology, a moral discipline if you like. Anybody who loses sight of this is a public nuisance, starting with Dr Athreya.
Not new (about a month old), but I just read it today. It was in response to the suggestion by Dr Kartik Athreya, a Federal Reserve Economist, that only economics PhDs dare write on economic policies. Effectively slamming most of the bloggers who comment on said policies. Mainly because economics is hard… really hard.
