academic relevance

in a more innocent time, at the beginning of the week, the Female Science Professor pondered the implications of Ignatieff's assertions of political science

In academic life, false ideas are merely false and useless ones can be fun to play with.

She left her train of thought unfinished, but made the point that most physical scientists really can not and do not think this way, well except when some cosmologists stray off the reservation, and even then there is always some hard nosed astrophysicist ready to rein them in. In public.

Not always saying they succeed...

But, deLong knows which side economists aspire to, for today is a Great Day in Finance
in theory, anyway

And, of course, in theory there is no difference between theory and practise...

I like this bit: "Whether this will have macroeconomic implications is unclear..."
"... I would be not."

But then he hedges the bet.

Economists are just not there yet.
This is the time you push out your model - make bold, falsifiable predictions, be prepared to go down in flamespost hoc revise your model if the prediction do not hold.

Go! economist doods, stick out necks!