Yes, there are real laws of economics, like Supply and Demand and all that crap economists talk about in academia. But that's theoretical science. There is also an engineering side to economics, where people apply these principles in order to make money. They spend a lot off time learning how these laws work so they can figure ways to get around them. Or as we Zoners like to say, game the system.

It's not an exact science, and sometimes they screw up and everybody suffers. That's what is happening to our economy right now, in fact, it's what happens to all economies eventually. This is what marketing is all about; getting people to buy things they don't need and can't afford with money they haven't earned yet so you can charge them interest as well.

What you wind up with is a system that can make a lot of worthless, but very desirable products very cheaply, but can't provide basic but dull necessities like jobs, housing, education, and health care at a reasonable price. How is this possible, you might ask? How can you get something for nothing? Well you can't, you have to add energy from the outside to keep the system growing, because without the promise of eternal growth there is no future to borrow against. This energy comes in two forms, credit, and energy (the traditional, physical kind measured in watt-hours). We're running out of both right now.

And what is really scary is that the people who engineer these scams are the highest-paid and most respected members of our society. They're not likely to be too motivated to finding a way out of this mess.
In fact, they're not to keen on even hearing about any alternatives. They'll look you straight in the eye while the building is collapsing all around them and tell you with a straight face "You don't know what you're talking about. Trust us, we know what we're doing."