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Comment by csentropy | Hacker News Reader

Nothing excites people like a false analogy. Looking to biology to model how economies work is like looking at stars and movements of heavenly bodies to see how stock prices change. I can find a thousand things common between them, but you know how accurate that science is.

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No model is perfect. If it is a better model than the current one (which is the argument), it should be used as a replacement. Economic systems came from biological systems. As a result, they share some fundamental characteristics and the "false analogy" carries significant weight.

I suggest you read this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_economics

Yes. Some are much farther from perfect than the others. Economic systems came from biological systems that came from matter and physical forces. Therefore astrology?

The impetus is on the claimant to show how their models are "better". From the link above, it sounds more like a religion or cult than as a science " ecological economics is defined by its focus on nature, justice, and time" . Economics is supposed to be descriptive, not prescriptive or ideological. What financial crises/trends did these ecological economists predict to claim that their methodology is better?

What financial crises/trends do aggregate models predict? Unfortunately, current economic theory resides in a grey area of ideology because of how poorly it explains and predicts such things. Assumptions can often be made in any ideological direction.

I also don't claim that the entire Wikipedia article is useful, I just wanted to expose you to some of the ways economists are using biological system (ecology) to model an economy.

Well, austrian economists have predicted the 2008 housing/financial crisis. A good methodology can predict crises based on aggregate models. Predicting when is a different issue, although some have done that, at least with the 2008 financial crisis. http://www.lewrockwell.com/2010/12/walter-e-block/who-predic... http://archive.lewrockwell.com/block/block168.html

| Looking to biology to model how economies work is like looking at stars and movements of heavenly bodies to see how stock prices change.

ha!

Except that analogy of those analogies is itself a false analogy. Bouncing models off each other is a typical mechanic of scientific innovation. No one is suggesting economists take the theories as wrote and apply them without due consideration.

I know, i love the analogy minefield, it is totally a slippery slope. Once you make one you make ten. And then it goes all to hell in handbasket.

In seriousness though, economics is a biological system. If anyone says otherwise, they are fool.

Everything related to humans or life on this planet is a biological system. That does not mean anthropology or entomology can model financial systems.

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