georgephillip
Diamond Member
James Kwak @ The Baseline Scenario reprises one of his posts from last June, written while he was reading "a real book, on paper - The Worldly Philosophers, by Robert Heilbroner."
Heilbroner's book looks more at the historical conditions "that helped give rise to some important economic ideas, and Kwak finds some passages that seem "oddly relevant today."
Conventional economic wisdom of the early 19th century, for example:
'They lived in a world that was not only harsh and cruel but that rationalized its cruelty under the guise of economic law. . . .
"'It was the world that was cruel, not the people in it.
"'For the world was run by economic laws, and economic laws were nothing with which one could or should trifle; they were simply there, and to rail about whatever injustices might be tossed up as an unfortunate consequence of their working was as foolish as to lament the ebb and flow of the tides.'
Kwak also points out some conventional capitalistic wisdom from the Gilded Age of the late 19th century:
"'Indeed, the world was so scrubbed as to be unrecognizable.
"'One might read such leading texts as John Bates Clarks Distribution of Wealth and never know that American was a land of millionaires; one might peruse F.H. Taussigs Economics and never come across a rigged stock market.
"'If one looked into Professor Laughlins articles in the Atlantic Monthly he would learn that "sacrifice, exertion, and skill" were responsible for the great fortunes.'
Thorstein Veblen, an American critic of capitalism at the time, looked at the captains of industry and saw "a parasitic class engaged in financial games to divert excessive profits to themselves."
"The bold game of financial chicanery certainly served as much to disturb the flow of goods as to promote it."
The More Things Change
Heilbroner's book looks more at the historical conditions "that helped give rise to some important economic ideas, and Kwak finds some passages that seem "oddly relevant today."
Conventional economic wisdom of the early 19th century, for example:
'They lived in a world that was not only harsh and cruel but that rationalized its cruelty under the guise of economic law. . . .
"'It was the world that was cruel, not the people in it.
"'For the world was run by economic laws, and economic laws were nothing with which one could or should trifle; they were simply there, and to rail about whatever injustices might be tossed up as an unfortunate consequence of their working was as foolish as to lament the ebb and flow of the tides.'
Kwak also points out some conventional capitalistic wisdom from the Gilded Age of the late 19th century:
"'Indeed, the world was so scrubbed as to be unrecognizable.
"'One might read such leading texts as John Bates Clarks Distribution of Wealth and never know that American was a land of millionaires; one might peruse F.H. Taussigs Economics and never come across a rigged stock market.
"'If one looked into Professor Laughlins articles in the Atlantic Monthly he would learn that "sacrifice, exertion, and skill" were responsible for the great fortunes.'
Thorstein Veblen, an American critic of capitalism at the time, looked at the captains of industry and saw "a parasitic class engaged in financial games to divert excessive profits to themselves."
"The bold game of financial chicanery certainly served as much to disturb the flow of goods as to promote it."
The More Things Change
