Cathy O’Neil, a data scientist who lives in New York City: Economists Don’t Understand the Financial System (Quelle Surprise!)

A bit more than a week ago I went to a panel discussion at the Met about the global financial crisis. The panel consisted of Paul Krugman, Edmund Phelps, Jeffrey Sachs, and George Soros. 

They were each given 15 minutes to talk about what they thought about the Eurocrisis, especially Greece, the U.S., and whatever else they felt like.
 
It was well worth the $25 admission fee, but maybe not for the reason I would have thought when I went. I ended up deciding something I’ve suspected before. Namely, economists don’t understand the financial system, and moreover they don’t get that they don’t get it.
 
Let me explain my reasoning.
 
Here are these expert economists, two of whom have Nobel Prizes and the third who runs the Earth Institute at Columbia and is considered a huge swinging dick in his own right, and they don’t seem to acknowledge how much power they actually have over the situation (specifically, not much). 

For that matter, they clearly don’t know the nitty gritty of the financial system.
 
At the end I asked a question, since they allowed a few questions, and as you know I’m not shy.
 
I asked how we are going to make the system simple enough to actually make it possible to regulate it.
 
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Read more here about Economic theory discredited


The not shy writer was Cathy O’Neil, a data scientist who lives in New York City and writes at mathbabe.org


Hon är väl i klass med Cecilia Malmström, Mona Sahlin, Birgitta Ohlsson (europaminister), den nya centerledaren, vad hon nu heter, och Beatrice Ask.


- Few mothers are thrilled to learn their daughter is dating an economist.