Politics determines who has the power, not who has the truth.
Paul KrugmanRead
The economics profession went astray because economists, as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics, for truth.
Interpretation
This quote critiques economists for prioritizing aesthetics in their mathematical models over empirical truth.
Paul Krugman argues that the field of economics has deviated from its intended purpose by valuing elegant mathematical models over the actual complex realities of the economy. He suggests that the allure of beautiful equations has seduced economists into believing they represent the truth, even when they do not align with real-world data and human behavior.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the role of mathematics in economics during a university lecture.
Politics determines who has the power, not who has the truth.
Our popular economics writers, however, are not in the business of giving their readers a ringside seat on the research action; with no exception I can think of, they use their books to do an end run around the normal structure of scholarship, to preach ideas that few serious economists share. Often, these ideas are not just at odds with the professional consensus; they are demonstrably wrong, and sometimes terminally silly. But they sound good to the unwary reader.
The raw fact is that every successful example of economic development this past century ... has taken place via globalization.
Wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is.
It’s not about the budget; it’s about the power...So will the attack on unions succeed? I don’t know. But anyone who cares about retaining government of the people by the people should hope that it doesn’t.
The goal in the end is not to win elections. The goal is to change society.
Words don't change their shape, they change their meaning, their function...They don't have a meaning of their own any more, they refer to other words that you don't know, that you've never read or heard...you've never seen their shape, but you feel...you suspect...they correspond to...an empty space inside you...or in the universe.
Man adapts himself to everything, to the best and the worst.
People forget that when you're 16, you're probably more serious than you'll ever be again. You think seriously about the big questions.
For a long time I was convinced that the conflict between Jewish people and black people in this country was a media event.
Everyone believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side, without ever bothering to examine the evidence.
Men are admitted into heaven not because they have curbed and governed their passions or have no passions, but because they have cultivated their understandings. The treasures of heaven are not negations of passion, but realities of intellect, from which all the passions emanate uncurbed in their eternal glory.
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