ABSTRACT
Economic theory can offer no solution to the problem of inflation—except to stifle the very growth of output and employment which should be the greater concern of economists. In this way the problem of inflation has been transformed into the far more serious problem of world stagflation. Economics as a discipline consists of a body of theory which lacks any foundation in reality. Economics as a discipline cannot be so vacuous, so unreliable a guide. Many economists would be among their number, noting that their subject matter does not lend itself to laboratory experiments, in which other factors can be held constant, and that a reliance on statistical analysis, the only feasible alternative, seldom leads to conclusive results. The neoclassical core of economic theory is little different from what it was in Veblen’s day. The structure of the economics profession described so far is not really different from that of other academic disciplines, including the natural sciences.
