Comments on: “We may be seeing the beginning of the end of the recession” http://blog.jim.com/economics/%e2%80%9cwe-may-be-seeing-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-recession%e2%80%9d.html Liberty in an unfree world Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:11:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Constant http://blog.jim.com/economics/%e2%80%9cwe-may-be-seeing-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-recession%e2%80%9d.html/comment-page-1#comment-1779 Constant Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:13:06 +0000 http://blog.jim.com/?p=453#comment-1779 Arnold Kling has just explained that "In fact, the entire mainstream economics profession is built around [progressivism/technocratism]. When you write a paper, if you don't include a section on "policy implications" (i.e, how a benevolent technocrat would use the findings in your paper), the paper is considered incomplete." Hoping links will work: <a href="http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2009/08/the_libertarian_1.html" rel="nofollow">Econlog article.</a> Arnold Kling has just explained that “In fact, the entire mainstream economics profession is built around [progressivism/technocratism]. When you write a paper, if you don’t include a section on “policy implications” (i.e, how a benevolent technocrat would use the findings in your paper), the paper is considered incomplete.”

Hoping links will work: Econlog article.

]]> By: jim http://blog.jim.com/economics/%e2%80%9cwe-may-be-seeing-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-recession%e2%80%9d.html/comment-page-1#comment-1690 jim Sat, 01 Aug 2009 06:46:45 +0000 http://blog.jim.com/?p=453#comment-1690 For the reasons blogged by Moldbug, there is always some corruption. Science as originally structured by the invisible college, is an institution designed to function successfully despite fairly high levels of corruption, persecution, and barefaced lies. It is not the presence of corruption that makes a science into a pseudo science, it is whether these safeguards and precautions are discarded. When the Royal Society reinterpreted away its motto "nullius in verba", a motto inherited from the invisible college, giving it a new meaning that went down more smoothly on government funding, then it became an institution of pseudo science. For the reasons blogged by Moldbug, there is always some corruption.

Science as originally structured by the invisible college, is an institution designed to function successfully despite fairly high levels of corruption, persecution, and barefaced lies. It is not the presence of corruption that makes a science into a pseudo science, it is whether these safeguards and precautions are discarded. When the Royal Society reinterpreted away its motto “nullius in verba”, a motto inherited from the invisible college, giving it a new meaning that went down more smoothly on government funding, then it became an institution of pseudo science.

]]> By: jim http://blog.jim.com/economics/%e2%80%9cwe-may-be-seeing-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-recession%e2%80%9d.html/comment-page-1#comment-1688 jim Sat, 01 Aug 2009 06:32:54 +0000 http://blog.jim.com/?p=453#comment-1688 The state of macro economics is pretty much as Henry Hazlitt describes it in <a href="http://jim.com/econ/chap01p1.html" rel="nofollow">"Economics in one lesson"</a> - "Yet when we enter the field of public economics, these elementary truths are ignored" It is science in that the politically inconvenient truth is well known among economists, it is pseudo science in that this truth is played down, rationalized away, and weaseled around by those economists who hope to get places - science in that they know the truth, pseudo science in that they find it convenient not to know it. The state of macro economics is pretty much as Henry Hazlitt describes it in “Economics in one lesson” – “Yet when we enter the field of public economics, these elementary truths are ignored”

It is science in that the politically inconvenient truth is well known among economists, it is pseudo science in that this truth is played down, rationalized away, and weaseled around by those economists who hope to get places – science in that they know the truth, pseudo science in that they find it convenient not to know it.

]]> By: Constantinople http://blog.jim.com/economics/%e2%80%9cwe-may-be-seeing-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-recession%e2%80%9d.html/comment-page-1#comment-1665 Constantinople Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:16:25 +0000 http://blog.jim.com/?p=453#comment-1665 I think, though, that I must accept that macroeconomics is a pseudoscience, though I have not yet accepted that microeconomics is. Keynesianism, being macro, is pseudo. This seems consistent with the observable facts. By making this distinction I can account for the obvious truths that we gain from micro and the obvious pandering to the powerful that we find among so many elite economists. I think, though, that I must accept that macroeconomics is a pseudoscience, though I have not yet accepted that microeconomics is. Keynesianism, being macro, is pseudo. This seems consistent with the observable facts. By making this distinction I can account for the obvious truths that we gain from micro and the obvious pandering to the powerful that we find among so many elite economists.

]]> By: Constantinople http://blog.jim.com/economics/%e2%80%9cwe-may-be-seeing-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-recession%e2%80%9d.html/comment-page-1#comment-1663 Constantinople Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:51:53 +0000 http://blog.jim.com/?p=453#comment-1663 It has long bothered me that this corruption is even possible in economics. We do not see all that much corruption of other sciences by politics, though we do see some (global warming, race differences). Of course the pseudo sciences are corrupted from bottom to top by politics, but I want to think economics is not a pseudo science. It has long bothered me that this corruption is even possible in economics. We do not see all that much corruption of other sciences by politics, though we do see some (global warming, race differences). Of course the pseudo sciences are corrupted from bottom to top by politics, but I want to think economics is not a pseudo science.

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