In Economics, You Are What You Model

Jonathan Schlefer’s new book, “The Assumptions Economists Make,” is a welcome attempt to sort through some of this confusion. Mr. Schlefer, a research associate at Harvard Business School, is a political scientist by training, with an undergraduate degree in math and a long-standing engagement with economics. He is, in other words, well equipped to serve as a translator.

“This book is about what economists do in their secret lives as economists, when they aren’t dashing off op-eds to tell everybody else what to believe, pulling the wool over undergraduates’ eyes in textbooks, or otherwise engaging in public relations,” he writes. “What economists otherwise do is make simplified assumptions about our world, build imaginary economies based on those assumptions – otherwise known as models – and use them to draw practical lessons.”

Read it at The New York Times | Economix
In Economics, You Are What You Model

By Binyamin Appelbaum

(h/t Mark Thoma)

Good post on debunking mainstream macro. Stephanie Kelton and Bill Black have commented. I submitted a comment on the Godley model that predicted the crisis, but it is not up yet.