It would be too flattering to economics to compare the paradigm shift that lies ahead to the one that occurred in physics a century ago. Economics is closer today to astronomy in 1543, when Copernicus realized that the earth revolved around the sun. The academic economics of the past twenty years has been comparable to pre-Copernican astronomy, with its mysterious heavenly cogs, epicycles, and wheels within wheels.Today's economists will fight for their irrational rationality as fiercely as the pre-Copernican astrologers defended their epicycles and star signs.
Max Planck observed, in the context of the revolution in physics that occurred one hundred years ago with the discovery of relativity and quantum mechanics, that "science progresses one funeral at a time." The achievements of modern economics are too meager - and its ideological importance is too great - to allow such slow progress. Either economics will reform itself quickly or the funeral will be for the discipline as a whole.
Hat tip ~ Anatole Kaletsky, CAPITALISM 4.0
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