Geoff Davies wrote a book some time ago called 'Sack the Economists: and disband their departments'. You can get the first pages on Amazon and he has a blog. The title more or less says it all. I'm concerned about people who do apparently complex maths in non-scientific areas - economists, bankers, accountants, government statisticians - deep down I see them decorating lamp-posts along with politicians, though I'm not really that kind of chap (and once taught university economics and might not like my own medicine).
-- What role do you think these kind of people play in your life?
The first economist I met was my elder brother. He was doing the stuff at college, so I started in the 6th Form. I couldn't understand a word and by today's standards the teacher was a paedophile, always flirting with the girls. He ran off with one of them at Xmas and I changed to chemistry. I don't remember meeting any as an undergraduate, or in work life as a detective, shipyard manager and various odd-jobs. I met a lot as a business school lecturer and in various regional projects I took on. I learned the stuff teaching it due to staff shortages, never getting any formal training. None of what I learned had much to do with my experience in 'real jobs' or getting anything done and I soon realised teaching it was about getting students to do sums within very restricted conventions with money (capital) as a neutral given. Essentially, it was teaching people to play with spreadsheets and the brighter ones to write their own. As in science one could vary variables chosen as important, without fearing any slap in the mouth with the wet fish of reality spoiling the argument. These days there is a lot of talk about heterodox economics, but frankly nearly all of this has been around for a century and all really said is that the bankers, governments and their statisticians, accountants and economists are either crooks or their running dogs and lackeys. I believe this more or less true.
Argument is rendered more or less impossible against this Inquisition and the extended control fraud. Reality is the only place to get a decent meal and most areas are subject to the control fraud. There is almost no point in trying to discuss what is going on as the real arguments are multi-faceted and people quickly demonstrate ignorance and even the academic system is dominated by an Idol of the Theatre. People lack the skills to represent what is going on - it's a bit like Tony being stuck with a hundred art-incompetents like me and expected to produce 90 Picassos - or Molly trying to do some self-development with ten of me carping of the self as a Snark (actually this wouldn't happen as I'm something of a believer in Moll). Allan would have to keep a close eye on the silversmithing material, lest I did an 'artistic deal' with the Bunker-Hunts, leaving the class with paper exchange traded funds to bash with the little hammers, perhaps themselves disappeared into an endless rehypothecation scheme ensuring no one knew exactly where they were.
The biggest effect on me is not to be able to teach free at point of need in universities, and only as part of a system loading debt that cannot be repaid on students. All the figures show the certificates universities issue are a burden on all except the already rich. Politics is entirely useless as all vying for power are stuck with the neo-liberal agenda and the neo-classical spreadsheet that denies private debt matters (this is an accounting dodge). I believe our control by this 'political maths' is making us ill, preventing the development of secure lives and business models that could give us green-quality-of-life solutions, television, art and cultural events we might enjoy ... we could all probably write the book. Yet, in fact, nearly everyone is very quiet. There is fairly good evidence very few of us believe these politico-mathematical freaks and even that 80% of us just think they lie to us.
Another crash is coming and this time we may find no way to maintain business as usual. We don't seem to care. Indeed, I find myself slipping into selfish mood or at least self-protective mode in the lack of solidarity. I begin to see the figures in our newsrooms as arthropod aliens oozing pheromones that enslave us, though Tony will say I have been getting too close to my ants ...
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