``Long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead." - John Maynard Keynes

Commentary on Econ

In a nutshell I consider most of the modern theory of neo-classical economics as dogma rather than science. Numerous other people have detailed the many examples of fallacious reasoning, outrageous assumptions etc. However, such "shaky foundations" by itself is not a fatal criticism of a science: after all Newton's mechanical theories lacked rigor for two centuries, but was still profitably used in the meantime. Unfortunately economic science (unlike Newtonian mechanics) does not have any predictive power because of the complexities of real economies, so the pretences to mathamatical precision are misleading and intellectually dishonest, and worse, makes the whole field highly vulnerable to manipulation by ideology and politics.

Progressive Economics Links

The best resource on the Internet for non-establishment economic thought is the PEN-L mailing list. PEN-L is mostly a community of "progressive" academics moderated by Michael Perelman. I have reproduced some of the discussion threads that I found interesting here.

There are some excellent books in the progressive tradition. One very impressive book is available online: Doug Henwood's Wall Street

Here's my short list of Everything that's Wrong with the World.

What do highly paid CEOs think about the state of business etc? Here's a list of my favorite CEO quotes. (This list of quotes is so good that I did not even have to include anyone from that treasure chest of business wisdom: Enron.)

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