Pure economics is imbued with this manner of positivism. (I use the present tense here with a nod to how this continues with presentday neoclassical theory.) Over time, the discipline achieved a reputation for rigor and epistemic legitimacy that equaled that of other hard sciences. In Ricci's evocative words: "Th e socialist and the protectionist are to the economist like the astrologist to the astronomer, the alchemist to the chemist, the sorcerer to the doctor" (Ricci 1926, 25).

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 1113