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This article provides a brief genealogy of the debates on the role of time and history in economics and the implications of this role. It uses an analysis of the Methodenstreit (method dispute) of the nineteenth century and American institutionalism in the twentieth century to shed light on current controversies maintained by the post-Keynesian school and the regulation school. Far from being an abstract debate, the article addresses concrete questions. Can we identify “economic laws” that are stable in time and space? How can changes in norms and habits be explained? Do crises come from unexpected events or are they the product of the functioning of markets themselves?