“Do economists know any more than us? ~ No damn way!”

Kevin McKern of Ashfield, New South Wales, writes News Kontent and posts a long piece by Nick Fraser who asks and answers: “Do economists know any more than us? ~ No damn way!”

It is a most informative article with which I agree (well, most of it). It is not a rant, nor the meanderings of someone ignorant of the subject. It is a considered exposition on the state of our subject. Nick clearly is very familiar with the state we economists are in, brought to the fore by the vapid response of the profession to what is going on.

Frankly, no one seems to have a clue, and governments are thrashing about trying to appear in charge. I strongly recommend that you follow the link HERE: and read the whole piece – it’s rather long but never loses its tempo.

I just wish one of our noisy academic media types (you know of whom I speak) would write so honestly of the fine mess that modern economics has brought us to.

Be clear, economists are not the cause of the crisis; they are just too damn silent about the failure of their certainties about their so-called ‘hard science’, superiority over other social sciences, and their right to sit (well paid and pensioned) near the centre of decision-making, whether in corporate enterprise or Big Government and its international agencies.

For a taster, here is a sort of postscript:

‘What we now suffer in economics is a hardness of intellect, a meanness of spirit, a narrowness of vision and a rigidity of thinking that utterly distorts the role of what economics in our society should be. Instead of economics being our tool for societal advancement, happiness, health, and sustainability, the profession has lost its way in econometrics, neo-liberal cant and equlibrium theory. It has become little more than cheerleaders to our enslavement to a towering edifice of debt, consumption and greed and the mouthpiece of vested interests. Unless repudiated we face not only economic but soceitial and ecological collapse.’

To which I am tempted to add: ‘Amen’.