We need a normatively founded economic policy framework; in other words, a general compass based on tried and trusted principles. In the same way, we need modern economics, that is an economic science which analyses economic relationships using quantitative methods. Problems arise, however, if the measurability of economic relationships fosters the illusion that they can also be policy-managed accordingly.
James Buchanan, Honorary President of the Walter Eucken Institute, who died recently, correctly noted in 2009 that “Unfortunately, economists, generally, failed to understand that aggregate variables that may be measured with tolerable accuracy ex post may not be variables subject to control, directly or even indirectly.” Apart from that, just because something is old, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is also outmoded.