Gary North: a critique

2021 ◽  
pp. 311-328
Author(s):  
Walter E. Block
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Gold Coin ◽  
Mainstream Economics ◽  
Economics Profession

In this paper I take Gary North to task for several errors in his recent writings. In section II I address North (2012a). Section III is devoted to a critique of North (2012b). The purpose of section IV is to explore the propriety of criticizing a fellow Austrian-libertarian, with whom I am in agreement in probably 99% of all issues in political economy. I conclude in section V. North (2012a) is a very, very good essay on behalf of using gold as money. Entitled «Economists vs. the Gold Coin Standard,» it is an utter intellectual annihilation of the mainstream economics profession on this vitally important question. However, in the course of his essay, he makes several relatively minor mistakes. But, before I get to them, let me say that I regard them as only minor errors in an otherwise excellent, no, make that magnificent piece. This author explains in great detail why most mainstream economists think a full gold (coin) standard will lead to economic disarray. He also unearths in great detail the evils of the fed in suborning most mainstream money-macro economists.

Contemporary Principles of Heterodox Political Economy

2009 ◽  
pp. 38-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ph. O’Hara
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Ethnic Discrimination ◽  
Mainstream Economics ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Analytical Review ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Historical Specificity ◽  
Scientific Results

In this analytical review the author describes the main trends in the modern heterodox political economy as an alternative to mainstream economics. Historical specificity as well as the contradictory and uneven character of economic development are examined in detail. The author also discusses problems of class, gender and ethnic discrimination and their influence on economic growth. It is shown that there are tendencies to convergence of different theoretical perspectives and schools, common themes, topics of research and conceptual apparatus are being formed. The forces of integration and differentiation help establish new ideas and receive interesting scientific results in such fields as development economics, macroeconomics and international economics.

Economic Inequality and News Media

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
News Media ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Mainstream Economics ◽  
Journalism Studies ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Blind Spots

Despite the rediscovery of the inequality topic by economists and other social scientists in recent times, relatively little is known about how economic inequality is mediated to the wider public. That is precisely where this book steps in: it examines how mainstream news media discuss, respond to, and engage with such important trends. The book addresses significant ‘blind spots’ in the two disciplinary areas most related to this book—political economy and media/journalism studies. Firstly, key issues related to economic inequalities tend to be neglected in media and journalism studies field. Secondly, mainstream economics have paid relatively little attention to the evolving scope and role of mediated communication.

American Economists and Minimum Wage Legislation During the Progressive Era: 1912–1923

1998 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Prasch
Keyword(s):  
Progressive Era ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Unskilled Labor ◽  
Mainstream Economics ◽  
Economics Profession ◽  
Minimum Wage Legislation

Several recent studies, such as that by David Card and Alan Krueger (1995), have led the economics profession to reconsider the theoretical and empirical arguments for and against minimum wage legislation. Most noteworthy was the fact that two respected members of the mainstream economics profession claimed to have found that an increased minimum wage did not lead to increases in unemployment. Moreover, their result was derived from the market for unskilled labor.

From Fetishism to ‘Shocked Disbelief ’: Economics, Dialectics and Value Theory

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 9-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
David McNally
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
Critical Survey ◽  
Value Analysis ◽  
Mainstream Economics ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Social ◽  
Recent Arrival

AbstractThe recent arrival ofFrom Economics Imperialism to Freakonomicsby Fine and Milonakis is especially propitious given the context of the Great Recession of 2008 – and the associated decline of public faith in the verities of mainstream economics. Fine and Milonakis provide a magisterial critical survey of contemporary economics and demonstrate the need for a ‘new and truly interdisciplinary political economy’ capable of ‘incorporating the social and historical from the outset’. But their cause requires the explicit development of value analysis within the framework of dialectical social theory. This requires foregrounding the ways in which Marx’s categories inCapitalare from the start historical precipitates that acknowledge their own inherent historicity.

scholarly journals The sweet-and-sour soup of Michał Kalecki's political economy

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-279
Author(s):  
Aleksander Sulejewicz
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
Economic Research ◽  
Main Claim ◽  
Academic Teaching ◽  
Mainstream Economics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Capitalist State

AbstractLeszek Jasiński [2019] attempts, as the title indicates, “a reading after half a century” of Michał Kalecki's thought. We dispute the main claim in the book, i.e. that Kalecki has a firm place in contemporary mainstream economics and was the originator of many ideas generally accepted today. On careful reading, virtually none of the models and theories by Kalecki selected by Jasiński for appraisal has entered mainstream neoclassical economic research and graduate academic teaching. Most of his policy advice was also neglected by the Capitalist State, (post)Stalinist “socialist” State, and “Intermediate Regimes” in developing countries. His opus remains original, advanced, insightful but heterodox in all contexts. Our main thesis is that, toutes proportions gardées, Jasiński is signalling an attempt to repeat the absorption of ‘bastardised’ Keynesianism into the mainstream “grand neoclassical synthesis” in the 1940s/50s with selected, reinterpreted, ‘bastardised’ Kaleckian ideas today. We also doubt that the unilinear view of the history of economic thought can be sustained.

From ontological orientation to axiomatic habitus? An historical reappraisal of contemporary political economy from a Marxian angle

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 1013-1030
Author(s):  
Roberto Lampa ◽  
Martín Abeles
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
Critical Research ◽  
Heterodox Economics ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Accurate Analysis ◽  
Mainstream Economics ◽  
Paradoxical Situation ◽  
The Social

Abstract An accurate analysis of Marx’s early works reveals the pivotal role of ontology in defining his critical research project, which culminated with the publication of Capital. By re-assessing Marx’s critical project in such terms, a careful review of the ontological conceptions of contemporary heterodox economics becomes possible, revealing a paradoxical situation. By focussing exclusively on mainstream’s logical inconsistencies, a branch of heterodox economics converged towards the same ontological assumptions as mainstream economics. These economists fall into the ‘axiomatic habitus’ of mimicking, at times unconsciously, the same stances as mainstream economics. By contrast, segments of mainstream economics (new political economy and neo-institutionalist economics) are more aware of the nature of the social reality to be investigated, introducing an axiomatised history within their framework. A careful review of Karl Marx’s ontological rupture then becomes an inescapable reference in order to amend both heterodox and orthodox economics, challenging the increasing insularity of our discipline.

scholarly journals The CEA: An Inside Voice for Mainstream Economics

1996 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles L Schultze
Keyword(s):  
Side Effect ◽  
Macroeconomic Policy ◽  
Supply Side ◽  
Macroeconomic Stabilization ◽  
Mainstream Economics ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Economics Profession ◽  
Broad Consensus

After initially concentrating on macroeconomic policy, the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) soon began to provide the president with advice on virtually all issues with economic content. On a wide range of issues there has been a commonality of advice given by the CEA to administrations of both parties, reflecting a broad consensus within the mainstream economics profession especially on microeconomics. While the differences within the profession and among various CEAs on issues of macroeconomic stabilization have narrowed, differences in assessing the supply-side effect of changes in taxes have grown in importance.

To What Extent Did Mill's Economic Thought Evolve During his Final Decade, and Why?

1996 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Lipkes
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
The State ◽  
Competent Person ◽  
Economics Profession ◽  
The Subject

In an episode that reflects tellingly on the state of the economics profession in England circa 1870, John Morley presented himself as a candidate for the London University Chair of Political Economy that John Elliot Cairnes was obliged to vacate because of advancing paralysis. Morley, perhaps the most unswervingly loyal disciple of John Stuart Mill and the editor of the Fortnightly Review, was undeterred by the fact that he had published nothing on the subject, apart from an article on Turgot. Nor, in his letter seeking Mill's endorsement, did Morley feel the need to hint at any prospective scholarly contributions to the discipline. He suggested only that he was “a competent person and likely to discharge the duties of the post industriously” (Morley 1872).

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