Fully Inarticulate Model Economics: Or, Does Math Equal Macro?

A mushrooming monoculture emphasizing the Fully Articulated Model Economy (FAME) as the essential tool of macroeconomic science is coming to dominate the macroeconomic mainstream. The self-assured radicalness of the FAME movement strongly suggests that FAME rests on firm methodological foundations. One might presume that a carefully laid out, intricately argued methodological tract supporting FAME had been written, systematically laying down the case for such a remaking of what the very phrase "macroeconomic theory" means. In fact, no such tracts exist. Here is where an examination of the FAME movement must begin. It is not that the case for FAMEs is poorly argued - it is that there is no argument, if by "argument" is meant a carefully developed, systematically reasoned justification.