Łukasz Hardt

Is economics in crisis? Some remarks on the state of economic theory in the face of the post 2008 crisis

Many argues that economic theory is in crisis. As Krugman (2009) put it: “the economics profession went astray because economists, as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics, for truth”. Such comments are quite surprising since just before the global financial crisis the majority of economists were quite satisfied with the state of their profession. Take, for instance, the following comment made by Nobel laureate R. Lucas (2004): "the central problem of depression-prevention has been solved [by economic theory]". So, how one can assess the state of economics? What I am to claim is that the majority of contributions criticizing modern economics are not based on clear methodological principles and thus many of them are not correct. In other words, I am to criticize the critique of economics. Also, my presentation is to serve as a starting point for discussing the role of economists in public debates.