Until the current tsunami of mindless empiricism dislodged it, economics used to be dominated by mindless mathematics. This fetish had developed after the Second World War when, thanks to Paul Samuelson, economists started to think of their discipline as a once-removed cousin of physics.
They overlooked, however, the most important difference between maths and physics on the one hand, and economics on the other. The former, especially maths, recognises that some problems can’t be solved.
You can see the very long list of these unsolvable or unsolved problems here :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_unsolved_problems_in_mathematics
Economics, sadly, has a very short
They overlooked, however, the most important difference between maths and physics on the one hand, and economics on the other. The former, especially maths, recognises that some problems can’t be solved.
You can see the very long list of these unsolvable or unsolved problems here :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_unsolved_problems_in_mathematics
Economics, sadly, has a very short
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