House of Paine

alfred the great

mark thoma cites the mistro 

on math in economics 



============================


"I had a growing feeling
 in the later years of my work 
at the subject
 that a good mathematical theorem
 dealing with economic hypotheses 
was very unlikely 
to be good economics"


---------- fini --------------------


but he had  an action plan
 based on this over arching insight  ....


he relied "   more and more " on 6  "rules "

     here they are 

" (1) Use mathematics as a shorthand language,
 rather than an engine of inquiry. "


  this is gnomic  as is the next

"(2) Keep to them till you have done"


  i'll post  my gloss  later 

plus a word on  the book of samuelson's  
        

  now the next two  are easy.... 

"(3) Translate into English  

(4) Then illustrate by examples 
that are important in real life" 

and
  the final two are ...... luminous 

(5) Burn the mathematics 

 (6) If you can't succeed in (4) 
                              burn (3)

and he adds 

 "This last I did often "