The American Prospect covers a recent talk by SFI Science Board member W. Brian Arthur at the Institute for New Economic Thinking's 2nd annual conference in Bretton Woods, N.H.
Writes magazine contributor Robert Kuttner of the prevailing view at the conference: "[Standard economics] operates outside of historic time, makes absurd assumptions about self-correcting markets, ignores self-reinforcing behaviors, and excludes shocks that cannot be modeled, as well as cases of plain corruption. The case is just irrefutable, more now than ever, since the financial collapse...At this morning’s first session, a particularly nice rendition of this analysis was offered by Brian Arthur of the Santa Fe Institute, the father of 'Complexity Economics.' This stuff is impossible to argue with -- unless your career is invested in the standard paradigm...Arthur demonstrated that the western banking system was ungovernable because it became so convoluted and impenetrable to regulators."
Read The American Prospect article (April 10, 2011)
Writes Global Dashboard blogger Alex Evens of the talk: "As Brian Arthur put it, we’re not in the 'pristine, timeless, pure, and optimal' equilibrium economy that neoclassical economics tells us about; rather, we’re in a complex economy which is 'organic, self-constructing, roiling with change, history-contingent, imperfect, and messy'."
Read the Global Dashboard article (April 10, 2011)