[fiatjaf]

There are a lot of problems, they have been pointed by economists on every side of the spectrum right now, few months after the book has been published. More errors will be pointed during the years, but all the criticisms will be ignored, Piketty will be remembered as a genius for the time being and his ideas will be teached in schools and universities as if they were the God's words.

Just like happened with Keynes.

[al2o3cr]

Or with Reinhart & Rogoff, who made a "mistake" in Excel that helped push disastrous austerity all over the world with a 90% debt-to-GDP cliff that didn't actually exist...

[fiatjaf]

Reinhart & Rogoff are just technocrats that will be forgotten in two or three years.

[jokoon]

if he's wrong in 50 years, and still talked about, he will still matter for a simple reason: if a bad idea is popular, you need to implement it and make it fail to prove it's a bad idea. you just learn by your errors. It's better than to not experiment at all.

economics and policy are influenced by history. sometimes you have to find arguments in economics that manage to change politics even if it's not an entirely good idea. that's how history unfold.

[fiatjaf]

Well, Keynes is still wrong, and still talked about, and it was tested many times, failed them all, but, as economics is not testable, nobody can ever be convinced of anything, anyone can interpret the reality in the way he likes most and say it is proving your point.

[jokoon]

that doesn't mean we should not try anything.

[_broody]

And Hitler. Let's not forget to bring up parallels to Hitler when trying to smear up someone. Godwin's law must be fulfilled, damn it!

I don't see "criticisms being ignored." The author is dialoguing with his critics. His response was published in this very article.

[fiatjaf]

Keynes also dialogued. I'm not saying the criticisms will be ignored by the author, but by the "specialists" of the future.