Atrophy Quote by John Kenneth Galbraith

...the discipline of economics has yet to get over its childish passion for mathematics and for purely theoretical and often highly ideological speculation, at…

— Thomas Piketty

“To put it bluntly, the discipline of economics has yet to get over its childish passion for mathematics and for purely theoretical and often…

— Thomas Piketty

There is much of economic theory which is pursued for no better reason than its intellectual attraction; it is a good game. We have…

— Sir John Richard Hicks

“Economists are all too often preoccupied with petty mathematical problems of interest only to themselves. This obsession with mathematics is an easy way of…

— Thomas Piketty

Too large a proportion of recent "mathematical" economics are mere concoctions, as imprecise as the initial assumptions they rest on, which allow the author…

— John Maynard Keynes

Economics has become increasingly an arcane branch of mathematics rather than dealing with real economic problems.

— Milton Friedman

The use of mathematics has brought rigor to economics. Unfortunately, it has also brought mortis.

— Robert Heilbroner

Mathematicians grow very old; it is a healthy profession. The reason you live long is that you have pleasant thoughts. Math and physics are…

— Dirk Jan Struik

Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man. This is no accident. The inherent difficulties of the subject would…

— Henry Hazlitt

Mathematical economics is old enough to be respectable, but not all economists respect it. It has powerful supporters and impressive testimonials, yet many capable…

— James R Newman

Mathematics can remove no prejudices and soften no obduracy. It has no influence in sweetening the bitter strife of parties, and in the moral…

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The temptation to use mathematics is irresistible for economists. It appears to convey the appropriate air of scientific authority and precision to economists' musings.

— Paul Ormerod