> Economics seems more like a religion than science […]
Science makes falsifiable statements that are then tested (per Popper). When QE started a group of folks made predictions:
> We believe the Federal Reserve’s large-scale asset purchase plan (so-called “quantitative easing”) should be reconsidered and discontinued. We do not believe such a plan is necessary or advisable under current circumstances. The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation, and we do not think they will achieve the Fed’s objective of promoting employment.
Another group of folks (often label "Keynesian") made different predictions based on their model(s) / understanding of how things work.. One turned out correct and other incorrect in their predictions. Perhaps we should follow the models that accurately predicted things.
Governments / politicians run economic experiments every time there's a major policy rollout, and they do so based on what they predict will happen:
Science makes falsifiable statements that are then tested (per Popper). When QE started a group of folks made predictions:
> We believe the Federal Reserve’s large-scale asset purchase plan (so-called “quantitative easing”) should be reconsidered and discontinued. We do not believe such a plan is necessary or advisable under current circumstances. The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation, and we do not think they will achieve the Fed’s objective of promoting employment.
* https://www.hoover.org/research/open-letter-ben-bernanke
Another group of folks (often label "Keynesian") made different predictions based on their model(s) / understanding of how things work.. One turned out correct and other incorrect in their predictions. Perhaps we should follow the models that accurately predicted things.
Governments / politicians run economic experiments every time there's a major policy rollout, and they do so based on what they predict will happen:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_experiment
It is not the fault of the academic discipline itself if people ignore the results of the experiments for ideological reasons.
RFK Jr., the current US Secretary of HHS, is ignoring all the empirical evidence about vaccines (and even germ theory): is that the fault of biology?