Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Good curse, wrong target
In Aeon, a solid and well-written curse against theories in economics:
Not theory, not statistics, but history – what happened and why. While theory and statistics can help explain ‘why’ questions, first comes systematic study of the ‘who, what, where, when and how’ questions – purportedly quotidian questions to which many economists have, to their detriment, long given short shrift. Had they not spurned or, at best, passed lightly over history, more economists would have sensed in the run-up to the 2007-9 financial crisis that the situation, as Rinehart and Rogoff suggest, maybe wasn’t so different from earlier financial crises after all.The same applies to ALL theories in ALL disciplines. If we want to stop wasting ALL of our brains and money and energy on MONSTROUS SATANIC EVIL, we need to ABANDON ALL THEORIES. THEORY KILLS. EXPERIENCE SURVIVES. What should we do instead of theory? Follow Carver. Follow Carver. Follow Carver. Every fucking word counts. LOOK ABOUT YOU. TAKE HOLD OF THE THINGS THAT ARE HERE. TALK TO THEM. LET THEM TALK TO YOU. = = = = = BUT: In economics, as in many other fields of "science", the real problem is even simpler than theory vs experience. Economists are NOT failing at their actual job, just as most public "scientists" are NOT failing at their actual job. The actual job of an economist has nothing to do with theories or facts. Economists are paid to raise the share value of their employers, and they usually succeed. Other "scientists" are paid by government grantors to support the pet orthodoxies of the grantors, and they usually succeed. In other words, these people are succeeding in jobs that have ZERO CONNECTION with science, even bad science. They are the Emperor's high priests, wearing weird costumes and chanting in weird language to impress the peasants with the Emperor's divinely authorized power.
Labels: Carver
¶ 12:16 AM
