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.
If we never arrived anywhere, it did not matter. Between that earth and that sky i felt erased, blotted out. I did not say my prayers that night: here, i felt what would be would be.
Humility is the distinguishing virtue of the believer in freedom; arrogance, of the paternalist.
All sentiment is right; because sentiment has a reference to nothing beyond itself, and is always real, wherever a man is conscious of it. But all determinations of the understanding are not right; because they have a reference to something beyond themselves, to wit, real matter of fact; and are not always conformable to that standard.
Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH,' the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.
No matter whether one is flying over Newfoundland or the sea of lights that stretches from Boston to Philadelphia after nightfall, over the Arabian deserts which gleam like mother-of-pearl, over the Ruhr or the city of Frankfurt, it is as though there were no people, only the things they have made and in which they are hiding.
Where is the indignation about the fact that the US and USSR have thirty thousand pounds of destructive force for every human being in the world?
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