Comment on Lars Syll on ‘Thaler and behavioural economics — some critical perspectives’
Blog-Reference and Blog-Reference on Oct 15
The core message of Heterodoxy is that Orthodoxy has failed on all theoretical and empirical counts and that New Economic Thinking is required. Heterodoxy claims to be the living example of New Thinking which, however, has NOT produced the true economic theory but the pluralism of provably false theories. Worse, Heterodoxy argues that the criteria of science do not literally apply to economics as a social science and that to insist on the well-defined standards of material and formal consistency is merely physics envy.
While it is true that Orthodoxy has abysmally failed, it is important to stress that Heterodoxy, too, has achieved nothing of scientific value.#1 The simple reason is that orthodox and heterodox economists share the same mental handicap: they do not understand what science is all about. What we have underneath the conspicuous hick-hack of the diverse schools is the grand unity and solidarity of the scientifically incompetent.#2 Well knowing that economics is not a science, no economics school puts the “Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel” in earnest into question.
What the Bank of Sweden does, though, is either (i) a self-delusional overreach, (ii) an arrogation of scientific competence, (iii) an arrogation of legitimacy, or/and (iv), a deception of the general public.
The question is, why have heterodox economists never made a serious attempt to abolish the fake Nobel which makes the ridiculous claim that economics is science[s]. There is a blatant contradiction between reality and what the Bank of Sweden declares.
The Bank of Sweden has no legitimacy whatsoever to elevate a proto-science to the status of a science. The four major approaches ― Walrasianism, Keynesianism, Marxianism, Austrianism ― are mutually contradictory, axiomatically false, and materially/formally inconsistent. Economists do not even understand the foundational concept of their subject matter, that is, macroeconomic profit. Economics is not a science, and economists are not scientists.
What neither orthodox nor heterodox economists have realized until this day is that economics is NOT a science of behavior. Behavioral Economics from Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiment to homo oeconomicus to bounded rationality to game theory to Richard Thaler’s nudge is not economics at all but the very subject matter of Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, Political Science, History, etcetera. The subject matter of economics is the economic system.
Lars Syll entirely misses the point with his patronizing critique: “So — although it is good that people like Kahneman and Thaler are rewarded ‘Nobel prizes’ and that much of their research has vastly undermined the lure of axiomatic-deductive mainstream economics, there is still a long way to go before economics has become a truly empirical science.”
There is no other way to go for failed/fake scientists than to apply for immediate retirement. This, of course, includes the misdirected methodologist, confused blatherer, and clueless heterodox prophet Lars Syll.#3
Egmont Kakarot-Handtke
#1 Economics: 200+ years of scientific incompetence and fraud
#2 For details of the big picture see cross-references Scientific Incompetence
#3 The stupidity of Heterodoxy is the life insurance of Orthodoxy
Related 'The real problem with the economics Nobel' and 'The economics Cargo Cult Prize' and 'A social science is NOT a science but a sitcom' and 'Schizonomics' and 'There is NO such thing as an economic expert' and 'The economist as stand-up comedian' and 'Is Lars Syll’s stupidity really infinite?' and 'Legitimacy lost'. For details of the big picture see cross-references Not a Science of Behavior and cross-references Heterodoxy and cross-references Political Economics/Stupidity/Corruption.
