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kilobug comments on Rationality Quotes December 2011 - Less Wrong
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I would point out that it is perfectly possible to be a worse predictor than a random or max-ent predictor; if all economics does is - per the quote - remove our (Marxist/Communist/socialist/Keynesian/mercantilist/Maoist/Catholic/...) delusions that we can improve on the normal workings of the economy, it will have done us a useful service indeed. Aside from the very simplest predictions relating to supply-and-demand, obviously.
I don't get your jump there - we don't need to be able to forecast weather to be able to build a roof to shield ourself from rain. The same way, even if economists have no ability to forecast the market, we may still be able to devise social rules to soften the negative consequences of a market crash. Or we may not, but it's a different issue.
I also don't get what you call "normal workings" of the economy. Even most of the libertarian I know about still want to enforce and protect private property, using external force to do so. So they are already distorting the "normal working". If you want to use public force to ban stealing, then you're already thinking you can improve on the "normal workings" of the economy.
You certainly do need to be able to forecast weather to justify building a roof to shield yourself from rain! As opposed to blizzards, the monsoon season, sand storms, or any of the infinite varieties of weather which do or do not exist in your particular location.
The normal workings are set by long tradition and experience and local experiments (see the Austrians like Hayek), which is data-driven stuff completely opposed to the top-down economic interventions I contrasted with.
My understanding of Austrian Economics is that it's founded on Praxeology, which must be read very generously not to conflict with the findings of neuroeconomics, prospect theory, and heuristics and biases in general. Google "austrian economics," and one of the first results is a long, detailed critique by Robin Hanson's lunch buddy Bryan Caplan (quoted above).
Given that, I'm not sure it's unambiguous to use the term "normal workings" to describe Austrian Economic theory, except in a non-normal sense.
Bryan's critique.