Saturday, December 6, 2008

Jamie Galbraith on the state of the science of economics

From a New York Times interview with progressive Keynesian Jamie Galbraith, son of the famous Keynesian J. K. Galbraith.

Deborah Solomon: "Do you find it odd that so few economists foresaw the current credit disaster?"
Jamie Galbraith: "Some did. The person with the most serious claim for seeing it coming is Dean Baker, the Washington economist. I saw it coming in general terms."

DS: "But there are at least 15,000 professional economists in this country, and you’re saying only two or three of them foresaw the mortgage crisis?"
JG: "Ten or 12 would be closer than two or three."

DS: "What does that say about the field of economics, which claims to be a science?"
JG: "It’s an enormous blot on the reputation of the profession. There are thousands of economists. Most of them teach. And most of them teach a theoretical framework that has been shown to be fundamentally useless."

Krawk!

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