Strick, well of course that's true--but to be precise, I call it not a belief but a suspension of disbelief, which is to say that the "belief" persists although nobody really believes it or does it. It's more like "rooting" for something than believing anything.

A widening gap between wealth and poverty indicates an identifiable direction, and an extremism in practice rather than opinion.

I believe that a second round of tax cuts, ostensibly to create jobs, when a previous round had the opposite effect--that's an example of conservative economics, which you say do not exist. But of course if you separate the idea of the social agenda entirely, it's beside your point, there's definately no liberal or conservative economics. I don't separate it. Here's why.

   I'd say economies are really based on values, and don't see any way around it. Values encompass necessities and desires--it might feed a real hunger to eat one's pets, or each other (which would alter the problem of hunger and over-population a bit--look, there's supply and demand, there's productivity) but we have values attached to our needs until we utterly break down.

I think we sort and label ideas, as opposed forces, for drama, which makes various things more palatable to us. Like two people hitting each other/Ali and Forman, I loved that fight. It's definately a big part of western culture, and we aren't always aware of why we do it, and how it changes us. I don't claim to be immune to it, somewhere above it, sorting all the knowable facts, having all the expertise. I'm down in it. I'm a liberal.