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From: Zerkon on 15 Jul 2010 07:11
On Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:16:16 -0700, Immortalist wrote:

> It is customary to divide sciences into two categories, hard and soft
> sciences - examples of hard sciences are physics and astronomy, while
> ecology and psychology are often classified as soft sciences.
>
> One group of sciences is also distinguished by strict and rigorous
> scientific standards, and close attention to formal standards for
> hypothesis formulation and testing. The other sciences take a much more
> informal approach, basically taking the view that if it works, use it.
>
> http://bill.silvert.org/notions/ecology/hardsoft.htm
>
> Economics is the social science that is concerned with the production,
> distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics
>
> Why do people trust economics as much as physics when it is based upon
> such weak research methods comparatively.

Unfortunately, all science is soft because humans are soft.

"I write to you from a disgraced profession. Economic theory, as widely
taught since the 1980s, failed miserably to understand the forces behind
the financial crisis. Concepts including "rational expectations," "market
discipline," and the "efficient markets hypothesis" led economists to
argue that speculation would stabilize prices, that sellers would act to
protect their reputations, that caveat emptor could be relied on, and
that widespread fraud therefore could not occur. Not all economists
believed this – but most did.

Thus the study of financial fraud received little attention. Practically
no research institutes exist; collaboration between economists and
criminologists is rare; in the leading departments there are few
specialists and very few students. Economists have soft- pedaled the role
of fraud in every crisis they examined, including the Savings & Loan
debacle, the Russian transition, the Asian meltdown and the dot.com
bubble."

= James K. Galbraith, May 15, 2010 =
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