Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Economics Still Not a Science; History Remains a Discipline
In this post Paul Krugman laments the ignorance and mendacity of many of his colleagues and in this one extolls history as means of informing economics. I would go further and insist that one needs to think historically to aid in the creation of policies and the single most important "lesson" from history is that lots of things that were once true, particularly about social, political, and economic arrangements, were contingent truths and that reliance on contingent truths is a really lousy way to run a railroad.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Ahem:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theonion.com/articles/historians-politely-remind-nation-to-check-whats-h,26183/
Historians Politely Remind Nation To Check What's Happened In Past Before Making Any Big Decisions
"In the coming weeks and months, people will have to make some really important decisions about some really important issues," Columbia University historian Douglas R. Collins said during a press conference, speaking very slowly and clearly so the nation could follow his words. "And one thing we can do, before making a choice that has permanent consequences for our entire civilization, is check real quick first to see if human beings have ever done anything like it previously, and see if turned out to be a good idea or not."