On 12/22/2010 10:47 AM, Wojtek S wrote:
> This is particularly true
> about economics. Its use of sophisms to conceal power relations on which
> capitalism is built is unparalleled among disciplines of knowledge, and
> equal only to medieval theology. Brian Arthur - a key proponent of the path
> dependency modeling which negates the decreasing utility "principle" that
> underlies marginal analysis - noted that fellow economists rejected his idea
> of "increased returns" on the grounds that it cannot be modeled
> mathematically (Arthur showed that it can.) However, this stated reason of
> rejection of the increased returns modeling conceals the utility of the
> decreasing utility principle for concealing the role of power in economic
> relations.
Krugman got his Nobel last year for showing that increasing returns invalidates the conclusions of standard international trade theory. He created a mathematical model to prove it. The work was done in the late 70s and 80s.
SA