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Lars Pålsson Syll
Professor at Malmö University. Primary research interest - the philosophy, history and methodology of economics.

Lars P. Syll

Courage that will live on forever

Courage that will live on forever Seventy-nine years ago today, on February 22, 1943, Hans and Sophie Scholl — members of the resistance group ‘Die Weisse Rose’ — were killed by the Nazis. Courage is not anything very common, and the value we put on it is a witness to its rarity. Courage is the capability to confront fear, as when in front of the powerful and mighty, not to step back, but stand up for one’s rights not to be humiliated or abused in any way...

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Top economics influencers to follow

Top economics influencers to follow Mainstream economics has sadly made economics increasingly irrelevant to the understanding of the real world. Trying to contribute to making economics a more realistic and relevant science, yours truly launched this blog in 2011. Now, thirteen years later and with millions of page views yours truly is — together with people like e.g. Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, Mariana Mazzucato, Thomas Piketty, and Steve Keen — ranked...

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The problem with economics — too much maths, too little history

The problem with economics — too much maths, too little history .[embedded content] Mainstream economists have always wanted to use their hammer, and so have decided to pretend that the world looks like a nail. Pretending that uncertainty can be reduced to risk and that all activities, relations, processes, and events can be adequately converted to pure numbers, have only contributed to making economics irrelevant and powerless when confronting real-world...

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Riksbanken har gjort hundratusentals arbetslösa

Riksbanken har gjort hundratusentals arbetslösa Många mainstreamekonomer medger att det är svårt att exakt veta var jämviktsarbetslösheten — NAIRU — ligger, men att den kan fungera som en slags ”tankeram” som kan hjälpa politiker och andra policymakare att fatta beslut och göra prognoser … Bra tankeram? Nej! Som senare tids forskning övertygande visat är NAIRU snarare att se som en slags ekonomisk-politisk fiktion som förändras utifrån den förda finans- och...

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Game theory — a waste of time on a staggering scale

Game theory — a waste of time on a staggering scale We certainly agree that regularities or models that explain or that give heuristic value over many different cases are highly desirable. But ones that do neither are not — especially if they use up huge resources along the way. When looking at the details, the Prisoner’s Dilemma’s explanatory record so far is poor and its heuristic record mixed at best. The only way to get a reliable sense of what...

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Nationalekonomi — en pseudovetenskap

Nationalekonomi — en pseudovetenskap . . Lars Pålsson Syll, doktor i både nationalekonomi och ekonomisk historia och professor vid Malmö universitet gästar Starta pressarna för att prata om nationalekonomins brister. I stället för att studera hur världen faktiskt ser ut stirrar den sig blind på verklighetsfrånvända modeller. Han är mycket kritisk till den rådande neoklassiska doktrinen och menar att en ekonom som bara är ekonom är en dålig...

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How economists invented austerity

How economists invented austerity .[embedded content] To many conservative and neoliberal politicians and economists,​ there seems to be a spectre haunting the United States and Europe today — Keynesian ideas on governments pursuing policies raising effective demand and supporting employment. Some of the favourite arguments used among these Keynesophobics to fight it are the ‘doctrine of sound finance’ and the need for austerity. Is this witless crusade...

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Why economic models do not explain

Why economic models do not explain One of the limitations of economics is the restricted possibility to perform experiments, forcing it to mainly rely on observational studies for knowledge of real-world economies. But still — the idea of performing laboratory experiments holds a firm grip on our wish to discover (causal) relationships between economic ‘variables.’If we only could isolate and manipulate variables in controlled environments, we would...

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