In summary, economists elevate their failure (to come to terms with strategic complexity) to a higher plane of mathematical complexity on which the original complex problem remains just as unsolved as it ever were. The only merit of this theoretical complexity is to confuse the mathematically ill-equipped, to have them think that the economists got to the bottom of the problem (when they have done no such thing). In short, it is a thinly veiled form of intellectual fraud. In reality, it constitutes a form of Complexity Denial which, however, allows them to pretend that the complex problem has been disentangled.

The reason why the economists’ efforts are extremely dangerous, and qualify as a form of toxic theory, is that, on the basis of their false claims (for having dissolved complexity) and the associated formulae [i.e. functions like qk = f(pk,πk)], they build theories which then ‘scientifically’ underpin both catastrophic economic policy (e.g. the macro-econometric estimates of the effects of austerity on growth) and the value of financial instruments (e.g. the infamous value at risk of financial institutions).