Economics may be dismal, but is it a science? | Letters

This assertion that economics is not a science (Joris Luyendijk, Opinion, 12 October) was verified by the article preceding it (Money machine didn't work - so keep it switched on). This apparently is the only advice that the IMF can give in these unprecedented times, where debt is the only growth industry and negative interest rates are being considered as a means of not solving but perpetuating this uneconomic, unsustainable situation.

I am a biologist, a very expansive science, and as such I have an understanding of energy transfer, production and growth, self-sustaining systems, feedback mechanisms, carrying capacities, natural selection and evolution. Unfortunately, economists do not have such a broad understanding of the natural world in which they operate. They also seem to be woefully unaware that the functioning of any activity involving humans, such as money-dealing, cannot be described by a mathematical formula but will be determined by the behaviour and mindset of the people doing the deals.