Comment on Bruce Edmond on ‘Economic Value is NOT Price’
Blog-Reference
The wonderful thing about economists of all shades is that the only fact they can convincingly explain is why they know nothing.
“Economics is a strange sort of discipline. The booby traps I mentioned often make it sound as it is all just a matter of opinion. That is not so. Economics is not a Science with a capital S. It lacks the experimental method as a way of testing hypotheses. . . . There are always differences of opinion at the cutting edge of a science, . . . . But they last longer in economics . . . and there are reasons for that. As already mentioned, rival theories cannot be put to an experimental test. All there is to observe is history, and history does not conduct experiments: too many things are always happening at once. The inferences that can be made from history are always uncertain, always disputable, . . . You can’t even count on a long and undisturbed run of history, because the “laws” of behavior change and evolve. Excuses, excuses. But the point is not to provide excuses.” (Solow, 1998, pp. x-xi)
Those who hallucinate being at the cutting edge of science, please take notice: “... suppose they [the economists] did reject all theories that were empirically falsified ... Nothing would be left standing; there would be no economics.” (Hands, 2001, p. 404)
By the way, the exchange value in the pure production/consumption economy is fully determined by the objective factors market clearing, budget balancing, and zero profit (2011). Utility drops completely out of the equation. All subjective approaches since Jevons have predictably ended in folk-psychological blather.
Pace Solow: there is no such thing as ‘laws of behavior.’ Orthodoxy started on the wrong foot. “But the point is not to provide excuses.” Yes, and today is the perfect day to start with it.
Egmont Kakarot-Handtke
References
Hands, D.W. (2001). Reflection without Rules. Economic Methodology and Contemporary
Science Theory. Cambridge, New York, NY, etc: Cambridge University Press.
Kakarot-Handtke, E. (2011). The Pure Logic of Value, Profit, Interest. SSRN Working Paper Series, 1838203: 1–27. URL
Solow, R. M. (1998). Foreword, volume William Breit and Roger L. Ranson: The Academic Scribblers. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 3rd edition.