You think that every economic thing that happens in Switzerland happens by accident? Really? Then I wonder where this site came from, and what the Federal Department of Economic Affairs does?
http://www.evd.admin.ch/index.html?lang=en

That's wrong.

Economics demonstrates the reasons why an economy cannot be centrally planned. That was what the socialist calculation debate was about.

It is no myth that an economy is too complex to be planned.

Hayek's paper on the use of knowledge in society took the argument a step further and argued that it was the local and tacit knowledge used by the entrepreneur that was so crucial to coordination. And that a planner could never get all the relevant information in a timely manner.

So it is not possible to plan an economy according to consumer preference. But it can be planned according to the preference's of the planner.


Economics is a body of universal laws regarding exchange, scarcity and value.

Yes.

Well they can affect them but economics teaches how that never works out.

Every intervention fails to accomplish its stated goal and creates new problems to fix.

The ones who are really economists rather than puppets for the 1% or the banking system would say yes.


Ah but the most important component in economics is utility. And utility is not cardinal, it is ordinal. So no calculus is possible on it. No interpersonal comparisons are possible either.

And the utility we get from things diminishes so there is no functional relationship. And the things we value change all the time.

So the main component of economics is entirely out of our control and is not able to be aggregated.

In reality that is the smartest person in the room.

The economy is like society, language and money. It is not the outcome of a single mind or group of minds.

Hayek refers to the forces that order the economy, society, money and language as the spontaneous order.

You see this order is not the product of a planner or a single mind. It was a great discovery in liberalism to demonstrate the way men acting to better themselves can lead to an order or institution that was no part of their initial aim. It was un-planned.

I dont think I can agree with this! Even Keynes agreed that a market economy was necessary. He was not a socialist in the sense of wanting to socialize the means of production. He merely wanted to socialize the rate of investment.

Are you saying that there is no way to use logic to come to an objective conclusion on matters of economics?

That seems hard to fathom when economics is supposed to be built on a foundation of irrefutable truths!

Economics is not built on a foundation of irrefutable truths.  It is based on a foundation of assumptions about man's behavior.  Economics has more in common with psychology and sociology than Mathematics.  You've pointed out yourself in this thread, you cannot measure the value society gives a product because it is ever changing.  As soon as you think you've got it pegged...a natural disaster, or a manufactured disaster like war ... changes everyone's value system.  Can you use logic?  Yup.  Right up until the point where you can't.

But you're right, my referencing the Keyne's/Hayek feud isn't really on topic in this thread.  Just wanted to get in on the action when I've got nothing to say, and find a way to throw in a plug for Lewis.  Listen to just one of his podcasts and I bet you'll be hooked.  Woulda sent you a PM but like I say ... if someone is interested in this thread they'll probably be interested in Lewis' show, where he discusses economics as it pertains to politics rather than just politics.

Queshank