Dismal science

As Sean highlighted, Paul Krugman recently wrote a piece on the state of the economic profession. Krugman was brutal; economic "science" failed to anticipate, much less predict, the current economic crisis. Krugman describes how economists had become infatuated with beautiful theories, and became increasingly removed from the real world. A world in which there are indeed real estate bubbles, financial speculators, and complete and catastrophic financial collapse. The current recession hit, demonstrating the failure of economics as a discipline. Sean was intrigued by the search for an Economic "Theory of Everything". He points out that this theory may indeed exist, and when found, will be proclaimed beautiful. Of course, the analogies to String Theory are irresistible. But I will resist. As Sean suggests, General Relativity is a beautiful theory. In fact, it's stupendously gorgeous. (Unlike quantum mechanics, which although it certainly possesses its charms, is not something I would call ...