Lars P. Syll

Amongst the several problems/disadvantages of this current consensus is that, in order to make a rational expectations, micro-founded model mathematically and analytically tractable it has been necessary in general to impose some (absurdly) simplifying assumptions, notably the existence of representative agents, who never default.This latter (nonsensical) assumption goes under the jargon term as the transversality condition. This makes all agents perfectly creditworthy. Over...

Svensk skola — ett fullständigt haveri Sen 2014 har andelen toppbetyg fördubblats från 0,25 procent till dagens 0,5 procent (knappt 500 elever). Denna andel är nästan 40 (!) gånger så stor som andelen med maximala betyg (5,0) under det relativa betygssystemet i början av 1990-talet … Det finns flera problem med denna utveckling. När betygen stiger och fler slår i taket så försvåras urvalet till vidare studier och varje enskilt betyg blir helt avgörande för...

Ricardian equivalence — hopelessly unrealistic According to the Ricardian equivalence hypothesis the public sector basically finances its expenditures through taxes or by issuing bonds, and bonds must sooner or later be repaid by raising taxes in the future. If the public sector runs extra spending through deficits, taxpayers will according to the hypothesis anticipate that they will have pay higher taxes in future — and therefore increase their savings and...

Things sure have changed …  [embedded content]

Loanable funds theory is inconsistent with data Loanable funds doctrine dates back to the early nineteenth century and was forcefully restated by the Swedish economist Knut Wicksell around the turn of the twentieth (with implications for inflation not pursued here). It was repudiated in 1936 by John Maynard Keynes in his General Theory. Before that he was merely a leading post-Wicksellian rather than the greatest economist of his and later times. Like...

De Niro says it all!  [embedded content] That a country that has given us presidents like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, should even have to consider the possibility of being run by a witless clown like Donald Trump is an absolute disgrace.

Paul Romer — favourite candidate for ‘Nobel prize’ 2016 Among Swedish economists, Paul Romer is the favourite candidate for receiving the ‘Nobel Prize’ in economics 2016. Let’s hope the prediction turns out right this time. The ‘Nobel prize’ in economics has almost exclusively gone to mainstream economists, and most often to Chicago economists. So how refreshing it would be if for once we would have a winner who has been brave enough to openly criticize the...

Rethinking philosophy of economics In this book Gustavo Marqués, one of our discipline’s most dexterous and acute minds, calmly investigates in depth economics’ most persistent methodological enigmas. Chapter Three alone is sufficient reason for owning this book.Edward Fullbrook, University of the West of England Is ‘mainstream philosophy of economics’ only about models and imaginary worlds created to represent economic theories? Marqués questions this...

Fact and fiction in economics The idea that we can safely neglect the aggregate demand function is fundamental to [classical] economics … But although the doctrine itself has remained unquestioned by orthodox economists up to a late date, its signal failure for purposes of scientific prediction has greatly impaired, in the course of time, the prestige of its practitioners.For professional economists, after Malthus, were apparently unmoved by the lack of...

The main problem with mainstream economics Many economists have over time tried to diagnose what’s the problem behind the ‘intellectual poverty’ that characterizes modern mainstream economics. Rationality postulates, rational expectations, market fundamentalism, general equilibrium, atomism, over-mathematisation are some of the things one have been pointing at. But although these assumptions/axioms/practices are deeply problematic, they are mainly...