Assumptions

What would you do?

Suppose you invented a carburetor that gave you 200 miles per gallon. What would you do? Put one on your own car, obviously. Sell them to your neighbors. Or just give them away to get things started. Word-of-mouth. Invent a better mousetrap and people will come knocking at your door.

Suppose you came up with an economic theory that explained a lot. What would you do? How would you install it? How would you show that it works?

I write. I hope that people can recognize an economic theory when they see one. I hope people are interested in such things. I hope they like to roll ideas around in their head the way I do.

I look for people who might be interested. But such people have their own thoughts. I have one such in mind: Paul Krugman. He writes well. He does a lot of good economics, economics that I agree with. And he mostly keeps his politics out of it.

In his September 5 2009 post, Krugman writes:

Third, on an interesting point raised by Discover (via Mark Thoma): won’t we eventually have a true theory that’s as beautiful as the full neoclassical version? Well, one thing’s for sure: we don’t have that beautiful final theory now....

I have that theory, Paul. I'm just waiting for you to get interested.