Krugman: The Anti-Scientific Revolution in Economics (among, not surprisingly, republicans)
I thought I could squeeze out a few minutes to talk about something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: the remarkable extent to which powerful groups, including a fair number of economists, have rejected intellectual progress because it disturbs their ideological preconceptions.
What brings this to mind is the debate over extended unemployment benefits, which I think provides a teachable moment.
So let me summarize: we had a scientific revolution in economics, one that dramatically increased our comprehension of the world and also gave us crucial practical guidance about what to do in the face of depressions. The broad outlines of the theory devised during that revolution have held up extremely well in the face of experience, while those rejecting the theory because it doesn’t correspond to their notion of common sense have been wrong every step of the way.
Yet a large part of both the political establishment and the economics establishment rejects the whole thing out of hand, because they don’t like the conclusions.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/the-anti-scientific-revolution-in-macroeconomics/
Apparently republican rejection of science stretches from evolution to economics. Everything has to fit their 'ideological preconceptions'. Not exactly a news flash, but it is amazing how far their delusions extend when facts collide with policy.