Economics, Ripe for a Surgical Intervention

Below, Fernando Esponda answers the second of our three questions.

Economics is ripe for a surgical intervention. Current economic theory is in need of an overhaul and the time is right for suggestions to be taken seriously.

There are several cross-disciplinary efforts that have been maturing in the background in complex adaptive systems labs across the world. I especially believe agent-based computer simulations are ready to become a more preeminent tool for exploring questions such as market regulation and efficiencies.

But beyond that, a different approach to address economic issues is in order.

In particular, I wonder if medicine has anything to teach us about economic health. Can the treatment of a disease be mapped in any meaningful way to the treatment of economic ailments? Think of abnormal growths, what is the equivalent of a biopsy for a tumor in an economic bubble? What is chemotherapy and what an excision? I can already see some similitude between different economic and medical philosophies--let the body heal itself, or shock-and-awe it with antibiotics...

Lets view society as a living organism and apply the knowledge accrued by the medical profession to its care; let biologists and MDs do some economics.