Economics and economists are being beat up really bad from both the left and right these days. We do not like to generalize about an entire academic field and perhaps the problem is not so much economics as it is some of the people calling themselves economists. Since we belong to the fringe division of economic thinking (which includes OLD institutional economics, Austrian economics and the voodoo field of development economics and Stockholm School of Econ. inspired thinking) it is always entertaining to see how “mainstream” economics deal with their issues. So when the politically correct Krugman writes (in 09) “As I see it, the economics profession went astray because economists, as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics, for truth” it appears as if the problem are really big egos and the inherent problem of taking theory and turn it into policy. (read the full NYT column here) Interestingly the mainstream is now attempting to band aid its issues by coming up with new fancy terms and ideas to move forward. This is good, but new? For example, here you can read about Austrian economist Peter Klein’s (at Mizzou) irritation with behavioral economics. We like to think of entrepreneurship as irritation so perhaps a good beating is what is needed at this point.
Cleet
Bubba & Cleetus 