As soon as I read the title "Economics, the soulful science", I thought "Yeah, right!", but couldn't resist reading the column. After reading it, I'm still trying to figure out what is so 'soulful' about it. Looks like a short column isn't enough to convince us of the subject's soulfulness, which apparently demands a book-length treatment. By the column's author herself!
I get it now: the entire column is a plug for the book! Oh, wait a minute: there's also a plug for a consultancy firm with a soulfully cheesy name headed by her! When I found out from that site about the author's previous book, it struck me that Alex Tabarrok had something sarcastic to say about her brand of snark.
It has been a very soulful morning so far ...
Well, there is at least an economist who thinks from his heart and soul; to quote Mohammed Yunus during his recent visit to Kolkata: "... the difference between classical economies and poverty solutions was that the former sought answers from the head while the answers to the latter had to be searched from the heart"
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Maybe Economists believe strongly in science (@#$%$%%#$$). They understand that research in neurosciences has clealy established that soul as we know it is non existent. This foresight might have led economists to not have a soulful economics :-)
ReplyDeleteI wonder how books such as Freakonomics become part of the syllabus, in business schools!
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