Crisis of Economics

Extremely interesting podcast on The Guardian. Is Economics in Crisis? Extremely important arguments are made here ranging from Mathematics In Economics to the idea of hatred of the government to the greatest of them all 'Keynes' and his continuing relevance. How does Economics deal with complex issues and how does it deal with simple issues? If the issues Economics deals with are more complex than what any other field of science that is shaped by other disciplines like Mathematics deals with, then does Economics have to reduce everything to Mathematical equations or move towards more simple but practical grasping of these more complex issues? Can Economic issues really be reduced to mathematics? Institutional economist Elinor Ostrom argues otherwise, that 'complexity' should not be a dirty word, and that we do infact need complex systems to simplify complex issues. Are numbers phony? Do they have no connection to objective reality? What would Keynes say about the stimulus package? Is Economics really that simple...or are academicians making it seem really complex to maintain a so called scientific image of the discipline, when what it ultimately deals with is so much uncertainty. Is the failure of one school of thought, (the dominant one), really the failure of Economics as a whole? These insightful arguments, uncomfortable at times, yet honest, are things any serious student of economics facing up to the strangely exciting time we as students are in would want to hear and think about! How wonderful really it would be to be able to watch the greats, including Keynes and Adam Smith battle it out before our eyes...what a sight it would be!!!