What Makes Economics Scientific?
Nov 17, 2025•Ep. 526
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Episode description
Prompted by an online debate about whether economics belongs with the hard sciences, Bob reviews common defenses of mainstream practice and explains why they don’t settle the scientific status of the field. He outlines the Mises–Rothbard view: economics as praxeology (logic of action), closer to geometry than laboratory testing, with core insights on opportunity cost, incentives, prices, money, and policy constraints that don’t depend on forecasting the exact timing of crashes.
- Understanding Money Mechanics: Mises.org/HAP526a
- Bob's Mises Daily Article, "Economists Can Be Hilarious": Mises.org/HAP526b
- Hoppe's Economic Science and the Austrian Method: Mises.org/HAP526c
- Lessons for the Young Economist: Mises.org/HAP526d
The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree
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