The Harvard Crimsom writes about Prof Greg Mankiw's popular Ec 10 course being boycotted. The students’ criticism is that Ec 10 “espouses a specific - and limited - view of economics.” It failed to prevent the financial crisis and does nothing to narrow the gap between rich and poor. They’d like a more diverse course that includes exposure to more progressive economic frameworks. Mankiw is too conservative, having served as economic adviser to Bush.
A diverse, progressive, revolutionary framework? Maybe Marx?
2 comments:
Although the protestors are ridiculous, they unwittingly reveal a greater truth - that economics is another make believe science. Sure they have equations and such, just like real sciences (e.g.physics) but their equations are rooted in (fundamentally political) assumptions. The key to any science is the ability to predict future events - if I pressurize the pipe at X bar, volume Y will flow thru it, etc. The results of economic models on the other hand are worthless.
Our universities are filled with departments of pseudo-science. The output of these departments is largely worthless - even a drag on our economy, because they divert resources from real learning. And just like bad money drives out the good, bad science drives out the good - students would rather study pseudo-sciences because there are no real wrong answers (especially if you stick to the approved party line generalities) whereas in real sciences there is only 1 right answer on the exams and you can't skip the lecture and hope to get the right answers.
K
Economy applies the scientific method and tries to discover the laws of economy. It has not been very successful till now and has not much predictive power.
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