carey_jim

Economists: They're Just Modelers

To paraphrase a famous philosopher: If economists didn't exist, we would have to invent them.

However, I think you 'give away your game' when you say:

'Fundamentally, economists don't know much more than your average undergraduate economics major about economics or the market.'

But as you said, it is a question of models and not 'the economy', which is vast. Models are abstractions of very complex parts of reality, which we construct in order to predict or control those small parts of the world.

Most people can't navigate through a city, for example, without a map but they don't mistake the map for the city.

One of the failings of economists is that they often mistake their maps for reality by saying such nonsensical things as 'socialism doesn't work' or 'capitalism is the exploitation of the poor by the rich.'

Most philosophy professors admit that, with all their models of wisdom, they have no more wisdom than the average layman who seeks wisdom on his/her own.

No president would think of gathering a council of philosophical advisers around him/her, but they all have a council of economic advisers.

And yet, most of us know that economists don't know more 'about economics and the market' than the average serious investor.