Other things equal: Samuelsonian Economics

Deirdre McClosky argues that we need to get beyond the Age of Samuelsonianism in economics and get back to theorizing and observing. Economics, especially mainstream American economics, for all its promise, is in very bad shape because it has fallen into a cargo-cult version of “science” in which qualitative theorem-making runs the “theory” and statistical significance without a loss function runs the “empirical work.” Consequently, none of the high-prestige “work” in the journals is to be taken seriously. Most (say 95 percent) of its alleged “results” have to be done all over again, by economic scientists using—in preference to the mumbo-jumbo that has passed for scientific method among economists since 1947— real scientific methods (such as serious simulation disciplined by the world’s facts; and functional-form math; and statistical significance, when relevant, with loss functions; and economic history; and inquiry into all the other human sciences we economists have been invited so long to ignore). A real science—or a real inquiry into anything about the actual world—should both think and watch, theorize and observe.Economics

Other things equal: Why economists should not be ashamed of being the philosophers of prudence

McCloskey argues that economists should be proud to be so very expert in one of Seven Cardinal Virtues, Prudence.Economists

Other things equal: What's Wrong with the Earth Charter

The Earth Charter, based on the model of the United Nations Charter on Human Rights, is circulating in Green Circles. Deirdre McCloskey spells out what's bad and false about the Charter. Although Ms. McCloskey hopes the Charter fails, she is not hopeful. The document, written by biologists and other activists entirely innocent of economics, has a good deal of economic nonsense. It fails to recognize how bad the project of social engineering has been for human freedom, which also means it has a good deal of political nonsense. But as she says, "when has nonsense been a bar to the success of a manifesto, left, right, or center, Red, Blue, or Green?"Economics

Other Things Equal: Economic Tourism

Economics

Other Things Equal: Mottoes for Science: Intendete Alte in Gubernando; and Qui scis?

Marxism

Other Things Equal: Economical Writing: An Executive Summary

Economics