Mathematical Veil: How Economists Transformed Political Ideologies into "Objective Science

The next time you hear the phrase "according to the economic model," know that you are about to be deceived. Behind these words lies one of the most sophisticated mechanisms for maintaining power created in the modern world. As a cynical political technologist might say: "Give me control over a country's economic models, and I don't care who writes its laws."

Economics has long ceased to be a science, if it ever was one. It has transformed into a high-tech tool for legitimizing power through manipulation of numbers and formulas, a mathematical theater of the absurd where actors in ten-thousand-dollar suits seriously discuss why billions of people should tighten their belts in the name of "economic expediency."

Objectivity as a Smoke Screen

"Science has no political color" — the favorite mantra of neoliberal economists. What charming naivety! Or rather, what calculated deception. Complex econometric models teeming with Greek symbols and integrals create an illusion of objectivity that doesn't actually exist.

Under the mask of impartial calculations lurks ideological propaganda, so well disguised that even its creators begin to believe in their own infallibility. As they say, if you look at an equation long enough, it begins to look back at you. And it instills in you exactly the ideas that were originally embedded in it.

Take any "objective" economic growth model and look at its fundamental assumptions: efficient markets, rational agents, perfect competition. None of these exist in the real world, yet the model is presented as reflecting reality. It's like constructing the aerodynamics of birds based on the assumption that air is a vacuum.

Economists: Modern Priests with PhDs

Modern economists are not scientists but priests of a new cult. They speak a language inaccessible to ordinary mortals, operate with abstractions that have no connection to reality, and issue verdicts not subject to appeal. "The market will sort everything out" is not a scientific statement; it's an act of faith, no different in essence from "thy will be done."

Only in economics can you completely fail all forecasts, miss an approaching financial crisis, and still win a Nobel Prize. In what other science is a catastrophic inability to predict major events in your field considered the norm? A physicist who failed to notice an asteroid flying toward Earth would become a laughingstock. An economist who failed to notice the approach of a global recession becomes a presidential advisor.

Just as the "divine right of kings" was once justified by theologians, so the "natural laws of the market" are justified by economists. And woe to those who dare to doubt! They will be branded as ignorant, not understanding "complex nuances" and "delicate balances." "You just don't understand economics" is the standard response to any criticism, equivalent to the medieval "you just don't have enough faith."

The Art of Manipulation in Action

There is no better example of economic models as tools of power than the story of austerity policy. After the 2008 financial crisis, economists Reinhart and Rogoff published research supposedly proving that public debt above 90% of GDP leads to slower economic growth.

This "scientific discovery" instantly became the bible for politicians seeking to cut social spending. Austerity programs were launched around the world, hitting the most vulnerable segments of the population. And only later did it turn out that the research contained... a banal error in an Excel spreadsheet. Yes, the fates of millions of people were decided because of an incorrectly highlighted range of cells in a spreadsheet.

Or take climate risk assessment models. Seemingly a purely technical thing — calculating the economic consequences of global warming. But change just one parameter — the discount rate of future losses — and the catastrophic consequences for our grandchildren magically transform into "economically acceptable costs." Turn the adjustment knob, and the genocide of future generations becomes a "rational economic decision."

Politics Encoded in Parameters

The most ingenious thing about economic models is how they transform value judgments into supposedly technical parameters. Take any model for evaluating "efficiency" and see what it counts as "costs" and what as "benefits."

Loss of biodiversity? Just an externality. Destroyed communities after the closure of town-forming enterprises? Necessary restructuring. Increase in mental illness due to unstable employment? Costs of a flexible labor market.

And now for the magic trick! A mysterious parameter called "willingness to pay" appears in the model. And suddenly it turns out that the life of a rich American is "objectively" worth 50 times more than the life of a Bangladeshi. Not because economists are racists (although who knows), but because the model calculated it that way. The magic of numbers transforms glaring injustice into a "scientific fact."

"It's just statistics!" the offended economist will exclaim. But who decides what statistics to collect? Why are we obsessed with GDP growth but don't systematically measure levels of happiness, quality of social connections, or environmental sustainability? Perhaps because the choice of metrics is itself a political act, determining what society considers valuable?

Narratives in Digital Packaging

Economic models are not just tools of analysis; they are storytelling instruments. They create stories about how the world works, who deserves reward, and who deserves punishment. All the power of differential equations is put at the service of a simple narrative: "the rich create wealth, the poor are to blame for their poverty."

When an economist says that raising the minimum wage will lead to unemployment, he is not making a scientific prediction. He is telling a fable with a certain moral lesson: "Do not interfere with the natural order of things!" This tale is packaged in econometrics but essentially differs little from Victorian parables about how the poor should know their place.

Remember how the mantra of efficient markets justified financial deregulation before the 2008 crisis? It was not a theory but a religious dogma promising heaven on earth through financial alchemy. And even after this heaven turned into hell for millions, the priests of the new cult were not debunked. They simply added a few parameters to their models and continued preaching.

And what about models that assess the "efficiency" of healthcare through the lens of cost per year of life! In this wonderful mathematical world, it's easy to prove that treating elderly people is "economically impractical." Somewhere in the pile of equations, the very idea of healthcare as a public good was lost, rather than a way to maximize the return on "human capital."

Transparency Instead of Pseudo-Objectivity

There is a way out of this realm of mathematical illusions. But it requires intellectual honesty, which is so lacking in the economic mainstream. Instead of hiding value judgments behind a wall of formulas, let's openly discuss what moral principles our economic decisions are based on.

We must stop perceiving economic models as oracles uttering truth. They are merely tools created by people with certain interests and biases. As they say, "all models are wrong, but some are useful" — it's just important to understand for whom exactly they are useful.

A democratic society deserves an economy that speaks human language, not one that hides behind jargon accessible only to the initiated. We have the right to know what assumptions underlie the models that determine our lives and to challenge them if they do not reflect our values and priorities.

DeflationCoin: An Economic Model That Doesn't Hide Its Goals

Against the backdrop of this economic theater of the absurd, the emergence of DeflationCoin represents a refreshing alternative. Unlike traditional economic models that mask their true goals behind scientific terminology, this cryptocurrency openly declares its purpose — to create a system that protects against inflation and market crises.

DeflationCoin is based on the principle of algorithmic deflation, where transparency of mechanisms is a key value. There is no possibility to covertly manipulate parameters in the interests of elites — the algorithm works openly, and its source code is accessible for study by everyone.