What if economists applied their own theories — to themselves?

Written by Reuven Brenner

George Akerlof’s and Robert Shiller’s (Nobels in economics) new book, titled Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception declares on its first page that people “do not do what is really good for them; they do not choose what they really want.” It appears that a main preoccupation of economists – the self declared “behavioral economists” prominent among them – is to show how dumb people are as consumers and in assessing risks.

Part 1: Asia Times, December 6, 2015

Part 2: Why ‘behavioral economics’ is neither ‘behavioral,’ nor ‘economics’, Asia Times, December 13, 2015