Hey guys! Austrian economists are considered heterodox economists and are generally the laughing stock over at /r/badeconomics.

Their main method of analysis is "praxeology" where you form theorems a priori from axioms (the first of which being "human action is purposeful", which means both everything and nothing at once). They also generally don't use math much (or at all) compared to mainstream economists.

Prax theorems can not be proven wrong a posteriori by empirical proofs (eg. they completely reject statistical testing of models like mainstream economics does). At /r/badeconomics, when someone pulls a theorem out of his ass without foundations or proofs, we often say "nice prax" or something of the like; we don't hold that methodology in high esteem.

Prax means that if you thought about something hard enough you can't be wrong even if everything in the world says it is with certainty. You could say it rejects the scientific method.

Austrian economics is usually used as justification for libertarian political views. I still don't get why that is since you can argue a small government position with mainstream models, but then again I guess that's too math heavy for the average anarchocapitalist