Neoclassical economics has become an unquestioned belief system and treats those challenging the creed as dangerous

Orden kommer från en artikel i The Guardian där man ifrågasätter vårt sett att se på och hantera frågor om vad som är ekonomiskt. En fråga som ligger helt i linje med hur årets Nobelpristagare i ämnet uttrycker sig - “Det handlar om människor och inte om människor som räknemaskiner”. Det är dags för en reformation precis som på Luthers tid!

I några teser säger kritiker bland annat:
* “Economics needs a Copernican Revolution, let alone a Reformation. Equilibrium thinking in Economics should go the way of Ptolemaic Epicycles in Astronomy.”
* “The opportunity and the vital necessity to rethink economic models is stimulated by a group of recent manifest failures.  The major threat of climate change and ecological destruction. ...”
* “For too long now the political mainstream has worshipped at the altar of neoliberal economics, as if it’s the only way of doing things…”

Kritikerna har samlat sin syn i 33 teser som de spikat upp på nätet! Där anför de tre grundläggande skäl för sin syn:

First, within economics, an unhealthy intellectual monopoly has developed. The neoclassical perspective overwhelmingly dominates teaching, research, advice to policy, and public debate. Many other perspectives that could provide valuable insights are marginalised and excluded. This is not about one theory being better than another, but the notion that scientific advance only moves ahead with a debate. Within economics, this debate has died.
Second, while neoclassical economics made a contribution historically and is still useful, there is ample opportunity for improvement, debate and learning from other disciplines and perspectives.
Third, mainstream economics appears to have become incapable of self-correction, developing more as a faith than as a science. Too often, when theories and evidence have come into conflict, it is the theories that have been upheld and the evidence that has been discarded.