Buiter on the Failure of Economics

For those who enjoyed Paul Krugman’s attack on modern economics last Sunday, Willem Buiter goes him one better in yesterday’s FT:

The essence of his argument is that once you take away all the mathematical mumbo jumbo, there’s really very little solid empirical data upon which to base a forecast.

Of course, all economists know there are problems with the data they use on a daily basis–just look at how often they are revised. As a friend once put it after one of BEA’s periodic revisions of the GDP, “Not only can’t economists forecast the future, they can’t even forecast the past.”

The classic book on this topic for those interested in the gory details is Oskar Morgenstern’s On the Accuracy of Economic Observations. There’s a gem on practically every page. For example, on page 21, I read this:

“When the Marshall Plan was being introduced, one of the chief European figures in its administration (who shall remain nameless) told me: ‘We shall produce any statistic that we think will help us to get as much money out of the United States as we possibly can. Statistics which we do not have, but which we need to justify our demands, we shall simply fabricate.'”

I have no doubt that a vast amount of data from Africa falls into the same category. Even countries that do not need aid, like China, produce data that is deeply suspect. But economists still use it because they assume that any data is better than no data.

Recently I came across a blog entry by someone I know that made use of a 50-year old GDP data series to make his point. As far as I could see, his only reason for doing so is that the old data proved his point while the newer data didn’t.

The point is simply that mathematical elegance and precision does not necessarily translate into accuracy or understanding of economic phenomena. Remember the advice given to a young economist working in India many years ago:

“The government are very keen on amassing statistics–they collect them, add them, raise them to the nth power, take the cube root and prepare wonderful diagrams. But what you must never forget is that every one of those figures comes in the first instance from the chowty dar [village watchman] who just puts down what he damn pleases.”

Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking a link, we may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!

About Bruce Bartlett 76 Articles

Affiliation: Forbes

Bruce Bartlett is a columnist for Forbes.com, the online side of Forbes, the nation’s premier financial magazine.

He served for many years in prominent governmental positions including executive director of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, Deputy Assistant Secretary for economic policy at the U.S. Treasury Department during the George H.W. Bush Administration, and as a senior policy analyst in the White House for Ronald Reagan.

Bruce is the author of seven books, including the New York Times best-selling Impostor: How George W. Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy, and thousands of articles in national publications including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, Fortune and many others. He appears frequently on CNN, CNBC, C-SPAN and Fox News, and has been a guest on both the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report.

Visit: Capital Gains and Games

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.