The problem is that a lot out economics relies on "models" that estimate the price of milk by assuming a frictionless cow on an infinite plane

Reminds me of a great sarcastic comment I heard in a "Well, there's your problem" podcast. It was along the lines of "Turns out that, if gas was free, contrary to what economists would have you believe, people wouldn't be consuming infinite amounts of it"

Also the fact that the economy is managed can mean things aren't always testable. If you think there's going to be a recession based on models and you prevent that by using policy, did you really prevent the recession or was it never going to happen?

where's that SMBC comic that says economic models suck so bad because they're created by the sort of person who gets a business degree

The real issue is that anyone can come up with an economic model, but politicians and public figures get to pick and choose the one that fits their beliefs most closely. The model can be crap and barely hold up beyond an ELIF narrative about why it's true, and people will base their careers around believing it

I think there are good economic models out there, it's just the convenient ones that are spread... Ones that don't generally hold up against actual observation

Economics is tarot card reading for right wing pseudointellectuals, just like The Stock Market being the same as astrological horoscopes for the same crowd