Towards an Economics of Evolution, Emergence, and Innovation

The only function of Economic Forecasting is to make Astrology look respectable. John Kenneth Galbraith

Page after page of professional economic journals are filled with mathematical formulas leading the reader from sets of more or less plausible but entirely arbitrary assumptions to precisely stated but irrelevant theoretical conclusions. Wassily Leontief

The men of the sciences that are proud to own themselves modern find fault with economists for being still content to occupy themselves with repairing a structure and doctrines and maxims resting on natural rights, utilitarianism, and administrative expediency. Thorstein Veblen

The new approach [complexity economics] is not just an extension of standard economics, nor does it consist of adding agent-based behavior to standard models. It gives a different, nonequilibrium view of the economy: one where actions and strategies constantly evolve, where time becomes important, where structures constantly form and re-form… This view gives us a world closer to that of political economy than to neoclassical theory, a world that is organic, evolutionary and historically-contingent. Brian Arthur

Can Economics Be More Scientific Than Scientology?

When it comes to light bulb jokes, the standard answer for how many economists is “none, the market will take care of it”. In our real world of highly rigged economies, the answer involves psychologists, where the answer is…