[HCIdivision17]

The economy doesn't follow natural law, or - in many ways both literal and figurative - any laws at all.

If you think it should, then it'll appear to violate all sorts of principles all the time. In some cases it behaves like a closed system (employment in countries), in others it's an open system (companies). Some cases money is conserved (double entry booking), in others money behaves more like a Banach-Tarski ball (think bank money multipliers).

[jayfuerstenberg]

Neo-classical capitalism doesn't even acknowledge the laws of nature let alone follow them.

Jeremy Rifkin has written a lot of about this topic and his arguments that economists should first learn the laws of thermodynamics before being set loose on the economy.

His book, "The Third Industrial Revolution" touches on this topic quite a bit, if your interested… http://www.amazon.com/Third-Industrial-Revolution-Lateral-Tr...