THE POVERTY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Stumbling and Mumbling's "Cargo Cult Economics" takes stock.

In the first pages of After Virtue Alasdair MacIntyre imagines people trying to revive science after it has been destroyed by catastrophes and know-nothing governments. They would, he said, have only fragments to build upon; bits of theories unrelated to other bits or to experimental evidence; and partial ideas unrelated to their context. They would use scientific words but the beliefs and evidence behind such words would be missing.

This, I fear, is the state in which economics has fallen in politicians' hands. They use economicky words, but stripped of the context and evidence in which such words made intelligent sense.

Think of the E Plebnista episode (properly, "The Omega Glory") in Star Trek.  There's enough to antagonize policy advocates of all stripes in that post to make it worth reading.

Dang, there's a lot about E Plebnista online as well.