Economists sometimes present their discipline as the queen of the social sciences, a claim staked primarily on a superificial resemblance to physics: It has universal laws! Expressed in numbers! But that confidence can go horribly wrong.
The global financial crisis of 2008 and ensuing Great Recession should have been a wakeup call, but in the interveneing years, to many have gone back to sleep. And the world of finance is hardly unique. Economics is supposed to be a science whose models tell us how to maximize general welfare — meaning the welfare of the many, not the few at the top. But in case after case, whether in dealing with the climate crisis, economic inequality or international trade — economists’ answers don’t deliver as promised.
