Leaving the EU has reduced Britain’s GDP by up to 8pc, according to a devastating US study

The latest such assessment comes in the form of a paper from the US-based National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). This concludes that Brexit has reduced UK GDP by 6pc to 8pc, far more than most previous estimates.

Investment is worse off by between 12pc and 18pc, employment by between 3pc and 4pc, and productivity also by between 3pc and 4pc. There have been few more devastating assessments than this.

    • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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      15 hours ago

      IMHO part of the problem was that economics was more a branch of philosophy than a science until the 1970s, but the public never got the memo when this changed.

      So we get doofuses who act like their economics claims are purely a matter of opinion, not falsifiable hypotheses. Try arguing for a UBI and watch how many chalkboard economists tell you what they imagine would happen, completely ignoring all experimental results.

      • fodor@lemmy.zip
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        12 hours ago

        It turns out economics is still more hand wavy than substantive science. Economists like to pretend otherwise, but don’t let them fool you. After all, what kind of scientific field would conflate “the economy” with “rich people’s yachts” and just … keep on doing that … even when exposed?

        • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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          11 hours ago

          I agree that conflating a healthy economy with stock market growth is bogus. This misconception predates the 1970s, and is the same sort of chalkboard economics I’m talking about.

          The chalkboard:

          The results:

          That doesn’t mean that economics as a whole is bullshit. It means that monetary policy in particular has been heavily propagandized. An economist who agrees with you will find themselves unable to obtain funding and ostracized. Just like Galileo was… But it was geocentrism - not all of astronomy - that was unscientific. Science is how you know if you’re a Galileo or just a crank.

          You don’t use science to show that you’re right, you use science to become right.

          Randall Munroe

          IMHO the mask simply came off in 2008 when they bailed out the rich and not the poor. They’re pissing on our legs and telling us it’s raining. As more and more people are forced into poverty while the stock market soars, more of us are rightfully asking these questions. So what are we gonna do about it? Do you trust your savings to someone who insists that the economy is rich people’s yachts?

          • squaresinger@lemmy.world
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            1 hour ago

            IMHO the mask simply came off in 2008 when they bailed out the rich and not the poor. They’re pissing on our legs and telling us it’s raining. As more and more people are forced into poverty while the stock market soars, more of us are rightfully asking these questions. So what are we gonna do about it? Do you trust your savings to someone who insists that the economy is rich people’s yachts?

            It’s all just a matter of goals. Is economics there to help the poor, the middle class or the rich? Depending on your answer, it’s either an absolute failure or an unmitigated success.

            And considering the golden rule (“The one who has the gold makes the rules”), it’s quite clear what’s happening there. All of the economics technobabble is only there to distract and justify, not to actually make sense.

          • qevlarr@lemmy.world
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            3 hours ago

            IMHO the mask simply came off in 2008 when they bailed out the rich and not the poor.

            Watch them bail out AI soon. The inmates are running the asylum

            • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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              13 minutes ago

              No doubt.

              In 2008, the bailout supporters denied that it was a moral hazard.

              In 2020, it became “many” times. Nothing ever happens only twice.