A Response to Economics as Gauge Theory

This isn’t fair. By 2021 we have learned that the way to judge the merits of a scientific proposal is not testability or provability but the ability to exchange Joe Rogan anecdotes on the Lex podcast.

I followed (from afar) the recent presentation at Chicago out of a sense of professional obligation. If we were getting something as important as the CPI wrong, I would want to know (and to do better, whether using gauge theory or whatever other tool!). Weinstein’s theory made no impression on any economist there, as far as I can tell.

Few of us know much gauge theory, but he was unable to offer any actual example in the presentation where his theory would get it right and our methods would get it wrong. It is therefore reassuring to see someone who actually knows gauge theory (but not economics) say that even the gauge theory is wrong.

"Our conclusion is that the main contribution of the Malaney-Weinstein work is that it provides a striking example of how to obscure simple concepts through an uneconomical use of gauge theory."

Ouch.