the problem with economics is its self-conscious insistence on being taken seriously as a rigorous, hard(ish) science which leads to an over use of complex, fancy looking mathematical models that, given the subject, require a great many assumptions to "work". in a dynamic, human-created system with constantly changing rules (society) those assumptions are often massive over simplifications or quickly made obsolete with the passage of time. better to think of economics as philosophy with which statistics might be applied rather than a science in and of itself...(i have a graduate degree in economics)