Wowsernomics: economics – religion or science?

I can’t say that I agree with everything that Steve Keen says but I sure enjoyed his talk entitled “Wowsernomics – the madness behind modern economics theory, policy and practice”. Here he attacks neoclassical economics and it’s idea of equilibrium. He likens modern economics to religion. I agree with Steve Keen on that score – economics is like religion or ideology. i.e. you have to “believe” in one view or another e.g. you are either a lefty or a righty.

I am not certain that a theory of economics can be completely addressed mathematically i.e. how the human response can be modelled accurately. Much of economic policy is driven by politics. Before listening to this lecture I had assumed that economists’ used uncertainty in their models but apparently not. It would be great to see a computer simulation of the economy to see if it supports the Austrian view (something like the flocking algorithms that games programmers sometimes use).

I still don’t know what the idea of economic equilibrium is. The Austrian’s don’t seem to talk about it. The Mises Institute recently produced a Stabilisation is Chaos T-Shirt. They seem to be believe that the market “chaos” is superior to government stabilisation.

It’s a shame that some of the audio is cut off at the end. Some audience questions are missing

The Search For Stability

A series of lectures given by former RBA governer Ian Macfarlane given back in November and December of 2006. If economics and monetary policy is your thing it will make for interesting listening.

The Golden Age

From Golden Age to Stagflation

Reform and Deregulation

The Recession of 1990 and it’s Legacy

The Long Expansion

Challenges for the Future