DOCSLIB.ORG

Ideology, Class, Crisis and Power: the Role of the Print Media in the Representation of Economic Crisis and Political Policy in Ireland (2007-2009)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Ideology, Class, Crisis and Power: the Role of the Print Media in the Representation of Economic Crisis and Political Policy in Ireland (2007-2009) Ideology, Class, Crisis and Power: The Role of the Print Media in the Representation of Economic Crisis and Political Policy in Ireland (2007-2009). Henry Silke BA (Hons) This thesis is submitted to Dublin City University for the award of a Ph.D in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. January 2015 School of Communications Supervisor: Prof. Paschal Preston 1 I hereby certify that that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of Ph.D is entirely my own work, and that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed:_________________________________ (Candidate) ID No.: 56109342 Date: ________________ 2 Chapter Chapter Title Sub- Sub-Chapter Title Chapter 1 Introduction 11 2 Politics Power and Ideology 2.1 The State, Class and Political 25 Power 2.2 The Invisible Conflict: Theories 47 of Ideology, Hegemony & Discourse 3 Economics, World Systems and Crisis 3.1 A House or a Home? Use 71 Value/Exchange Value and Crisis Theory 3.2 World System Theory, 84 Finacialisation, Hegemony and Crisis 3.3 3.3 Dependency and Crisis: Irish 90 Political Economy in the Neoliberal Age 4 The Media: Structure, Politics, Power and 4.1 Critical Political Economy and 112 Crisis the study of Communications and the Media 4.2 The Role of the Media in Market 137 Systems – Information, Reflexivity and Ideology 4.3 Deconstructing Ideologies: 149 Analysing the Press 5 The Property Fetish and Ideology: The Irish 169 Times, The Irish Independent, and the Irish Property Market 2007 6 An Innovative Solution? The Irish Times and 223 the Irish Independent and the Treatment of the Blanket Bank Guarantee 7 Protecting capitalism from itself? The Irish 257 Times and Irish Independent and the treatment of the National Asset Management Agency 8 The Irish Times and Irish Independent 298 and the Economic Crisis 9 Media and Crisis: Analysis, 312 Implications, Limitations and Future Possibilities of Research. Bibliography 332 Appendices 358 Figure 1.1 The Structure of the Thesis 3 Detailed Contents 1.0 Chapter One: Introduction ..................................................................................... 11 1.1 The Media and the Crisis ............................................................................... 13 1.2 Key issues in Media and Communications Theory: Structure, Agency and Content ................................................................................................................. 14 1.3 Media, Communications, Markets and Crisis ................................................ 17 1.4 Key Research Questions and Themes ............................................................ 17 1.5 The Structure of the Thesis: ........................................................................... 21 2.0 Chapter Two: Politics, Power and Ideology .......................................................... 25 2.1The State, Class and Political Power ...................................................................... 25 2.1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 25 2.1.2 Classical Marxist Theory: Base, Superstructure and the State .................. 25 2.1.3 The Instrumentalist State ............................................................................ 26 2.1.4 The Structuralist State ................................................................................. 28 2.1.5 Gramsci and Hegemony: The Re-Unification of Civil & Political Process 29 2.1.6 The State as an Actor .................................................................................. 30 2.1.7 Neo-Marxism, Structuralism and the ‗Relatively Autonomous‘ State ....... 31 2.1.8 The Relationship between State and Class ................................................. 33 2.1.9 International Influences on State Power ..................................................... 36 2.1.10 Corporatist Theory .................................................................................... 36 2.1.11 Post-Structural Theories of the State: Foucault, the State and Power Networks. ............................................................................................................. 37 2.1.12 Discourse Theory and the State ................................................................ 38 2.1.13 Studying the State: Pluralist Political theory ............................................ 40 2.1.14 Lukes‘ Critique of the Pluralist Method and the Three Dimensional Conception of Power as a Methodology .............................................................. 41 2.1.15 The One Dimensional View of Power ...................................................... 41 2.1.16 Bacharch and Baratz, Agenda, and the Two Dimensional View of Power .............................................................................................................................. 42 2.1.17 The Three Dimensional View of Power: Ideology ................................... 42 2.1.18 Neo-Pluralism and Structure ..................................................................... 43 2.1.19 The Neo-liberal State ................................................................................ 44 2.1.20 Authoritarian Liberty – The Neo-Liberal State in Practice ..................... 45 2.1.21 Conclusion: The State in Political and Latent Class Conflict ................... 46 2.2 The Invisible Conflict: Theories of Ideology, Discourse and Hegemony ............ 47 2.2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 47 2.2.2 Ideology and Ideologies, Concepts and Definitions ................................... 47 2.2.3 Marx and Ideologies ................................................................................... 49 2.2.4 Political Ideology: Base and Superstructure ............................................... 52 2.2.5 The Materialist View of Individual Consciousness .................................... 53 2.2.6 Louis Althusser: The Reproduction and Internalisation of Domination. .... 54 2.2.7 Ideology, Epistemology and the Concept of ‗False Consciousness‘ .......... 55 2.2.8 Antonio Gramsci and the theory of Hegemony .......................................... 58 2.2.9 Social and Political Superstructure: Consensus and Coercion ................... 59 2.2.10 The ‗War of Position‘ and the Hegemony of the Proletariat .................... 60 2.2.11 The Relevance of the Theory of Hegemony Today .................................. 61 2.2.12 Language, Discourse and Power ............................................................... 62 2.2.13 Politics, the Public Sphere, and the Process of Legitimation ................... 64 2.2.14 Conclusion: The Relevance of Ideology, Hegemony and Discourse in Contemporary Political and Economic Conflict .................................................. 66 4 3.0 Chapter 3: Capital, Crisis and Dependency ........................................................... 71 3.1 - A House or a Home: Use Value, Exchange Value, Crisis Theory and Ideology 71 3.1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 71 3.1.2 Value and Ideology ..................................................................................... 71 3.1.3 Property and the State ................................................................................. 75 3.1.4 Use and Exchange Value in the General Formula of Capital ..................... 76 3.1.5 Crisis and Causation? Financialisation, Overproduction, and the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Decline. ........................................................................... 78 3.1.6 The Underconsumption/Overproduction School ........................................ 79 3.1.7 The Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Decline ........................................... 80 3.1.8 Overproduction in the Built Environment .................................................. 82 3.2 World System Theory, Finacialisation, Hegemony and Crisis .............................. 84 3.2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 84 3.2.2 World System Economic Cycles and Finance Capitalism .......................... 84 3.2.3 Foreign Direct Investment and World System Theory ............................... 86 3.2.4 World System Theory and Hegemony ........................................................ 88 3.2.5 World System Theory: A Critique .............................................................. 89 3.3 Dependency and Crisis: Irish Political Economy in the Neoliberal Age ............... 90 3.3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 90 3.3.2 The Irish Economy at Independence. .......................................................... 91 3.3.3 Consolidation in the World Market. ........................................................... 92 3.3.4 Protectionism and the Economic War 1932-38. ......................................... 94 3.3.5 Export Led Industrialisation ....................................................................... 95 3.3.6 Social Partnership ......................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • German Political and Economic Ideology in the Twentieth Century
    EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CULTURAL AND POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY https://doi.org/10.1080/23254823.2018.1559745 German political and economic ideology in the twentieth century and its theological problems: The Lutheran genealogy of ordoliberalism Troels Krarup Department of Sociology, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark ABSTRACT Ordoliberalism is widely considered to be the dominant ideology of the German political elite today and consequently responsible at least in part for its hard ‘austerity’ line during the recent Eurozone crisis. This article presents a genealogy of the main concerns, concepts and problems around which early German ordoliberalism was formed and structured as a political and economic ideology. Early ordoliberalism is shown to be rooted in an interwar Germanophone Lutheran Evangelical tradition of anti-humanist ‘political ethics’. Its specific conceptions of the market, the state, the individual, freedom and duty were developed on a Lutheran Evangelical basis. Analytically, the article considers ideological influences of theology on political and economic theory not so much in terms of consensus and ideational overlap, but rather in terms of shared concerns, concepts and problems across different positions. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 18 March 2018; Accepted 10 December 2018 KEYWORDS Ordoliberalism; ideology; Europe; economic thought; religion; genealogy JEL Classification A12 relation of economics to other disciplines; A13 relation of economics to social values; B29 history of economic thought since 1925: other 1. Introduction: unity and variety in neoliberalism In Colombel’s(1994, p. 128) accurate rephrasing of Foucault’s(1993, p. 35) ‘history of the present’, genealogy is ‘the history of a problem of which the present relevance must be assessed’. One such problem, one that is of major political, cultural and sociological interest in Europe today, relates to the particular German tradition of economic and political thinking termed ordoliberalism.
    [Show full text]
  • A Critique of John Stuart Mill Chris Daly
    Southern Illinois University Carbondale OpenSIUC Honors Theses University Honors Program 5-2002 The Boundaries of Liberalism in a Global Era: A Critique of John Stuart Mill Chris Daly Follow this and additional works at: http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/uhp_theses Recommended Citation Daly, Chris, "The Boundaries of Liberalism in a Global Era: A Critique of John Stuart Mill" (2002). Honors Theses. Paper 131. This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the University Honors Program at OpenSIUC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of OpenSIUC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. r The Boundaries of Liberalism in a Global Era: A Critique of John Stuart Mill Chris Daly May 8, 2002 r ABSTRACT The following study exanunes three works of John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Utilitarianism, and Three Essays on Religion, and their subsequent effects on liberalism. Comparing the notion on individual freedom espoused in On Liberty to the notion of the social welfare in Utilitarianism, this analysis posits that it is impossible for a political philosophy to have two ultimate ends. Thus, Mill's liberalism is inherently flawed. As this philosophy was the foundation of Mill's progressive vision for humanity that he discusses in his Three Essays on Religion, this vision becomes paradoxical as well. Contending that the neo-liberalist global economic order is the contemporary parallel for Mill's religion of humanity, this work further demonstrates how these philosophical flaws have spread to infect the core of globalization in the 21 st century as well as their implications for future international relations.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Article
    Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 252 3rd International Conference on Judicial, Administrative and Humanitarian Problems of State Structures and Economic Subjects (JAHP 2018) The Money Factor from the Perspective of the Adherents of a Subsistence Economy and Mercantilism Yakov Yadgarov Department of Economic Theory Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Moscow, Russia E-mail: [email protected] Sergei Tolkachev Vladimir Ostroumov Department of Economic Theory Department of Economic Theory Financial University under the Government of the Russian Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Federation Moscow, Russia Moscow, Russia E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Abstract—The purpose of this work is to outline general considering the special role of this factor in all aspects of and special aspects in different perceptions of the place and public life, have also considered the money factor. role of money and money circulation in economic life. This is done by means of historical and economic analysis of the views This is clearly reflected, first, in natural economy "money of the adherents of subsistence economic ideology in the ideology". Towering achievements are considered, from Ancient world and the Middle Ages, as well as of the views of interpretations of the essence and purpose of money by rulers, mercantilists, who were the pioneers of market economic scholars, and philosophers of ancient Oriental and Antique ideology. The objective was to show substantial aspects of public entities until medieval times in those countries in conventional money theory existed in these time periods and which interpretation of the purpose of the money was seen include alternative versions, such as nominalist, metallist, and through the prism of religious, philosophical, and moral- quantity theories.
    [Show full text]
  • “Modern” Economics: Engineering and Ideology
    Working Paper No. 62/01 The formation of “Modern” Economics: Engineering and Ideology Mary Morgan © Mary Morgan Department of Economic History London School of Economics May 2001 Department of Economic History London School of Economics Houghton Street London, WC2A 2AE Tel: +44 (0)20 7955 7081 Fax: +44 (0)20 7955 7730 Additional copies of this working paper are available at a cost of £2.50. Cheques should be made payable to ‘Department of Economic History, LSE’ and sent to the Economic History Department Secretary. LSE, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK. 2 The Formation of “Modern” Economics: Engineering and Ideology Mary S. Morgan* Economics has always had two connected faces in its Western tradition. In Adam Smith's eighteenth century, as in John Stuart Mill's nineteenth, these might be described as the science of political economy and the art of economic governance. The former aimed to describe the workings of the economy and reveal its governing laws while the latter was concerned with using that knowledge to fashion economic policy. In the twentieth century these two aspects have more often been contrasted as positive and normative economics. The continuity of these dual interests masks differences in the way that economics has been both constituted and practiced in the twentieth century when these two aspects of economics became integrated in a particular way. Originally a verbally expressed body of scientific law-like doctrines and associated policy arts, in the twentieth century these two wings of economics became conjoined by a set of technologies routinely and widely used within the practice of economics in both its scientific and policy domains.
    [Show full text]
  • The Neo-Liberal State in a Post-Global World
    ISSN 2029–2236 (print) ISSN 2029–2244 (online) Socialinių mokslų studijos SOCIAL SCIENCES STUDIES 2010, 3(7), p. 7–17. THE NEO-LIBERAL STATE IN A POST-GLOBAL WORLD David Schultz Hamline University School of Business 1536 Hewitt Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55104-1284 Minnesota, United States of America Phone (+1651) 5232 858 Email [email protected] Received 3 August, 2010; accepted 20 September, 2010 Abstract. Neo-liberalism has been the dominant political–economic ideology defining the state and the world economy since the late 1970s. Neo-liberalism is a political–economic theory committed to laissez-faire market fundamentalism, a minimalist role for state inter- vention into the economy, and free trade and open borders. The global financial crisis that began in 2008 challenges the neo-liberal views of the state in numerous ways. This article describes the rise of the neo-liberal state, the ways the global crisis created a crisis for it, and then how the response to it questions its legitimacy and viability. The article concludes with detailing the various problems with neo-liberalism, calling for a rethinking of state theory within a new post-global economic order. Keywords: neo-liberalism, state, globalization, globalism, global financial crisis, poli- tics, economics. Introduction The western banking crisis that began in 2008 and the global recession produced as a result is an historic event on two counts. First, state intervention to save the banks, including the 2008 Troubled Assets Relief Fund and the 2010 Wall Street and Consumer Protection Act in the U.S., represented the most significant bailout and reregulation of Socialinių mokslų studijos/Social Sciences Studies ISSN 2029–2236 (print), ISSN 2029–2244 (online) Mykolo Romerio universitetas, 2010 http://www.mruni.eu/lt/mokslo_darbai/SMS/ Mykolas Romeris University, 2010 http://www.mruni.eu/en/mokslo_darbai/SMS/ David Schultz.
    [Show full text]
  • A Positive Theory of Religion and Scientific Knowledge
    DISCUSSION PAPERS IN ECONOMICS Working Paper No. 01-02 Ideology, Human Capital, and Growth: A Positive Theory of Religion and Scientific Knowledge Murat F. Iyigun Department of Economics, University of Colorado at Boulder Boulder, Colorado H. Naci Mocan University of Colorado at Denver, Denver, Colorado and NBER Ann L. Owen Hamilton College March 2001 Center for Economic Analysis Department of Economics University of Colorado at Boulder Boulder, Colorado 80309 © 2001 Murat F. Iyigun, H. Naci Mocan, Ann L. Owen March 2001 Ideology, Human Capital, and Growth: A Positive Theory of Religion and Scienti¯c Knowledge Murat F. Iyigun University of Colorado, Boulder [email protected] H. Naci Mocan University of Colorado, Denver and NBER [email protected] Ann L. Owen Hamilton College [email protected] Abstract We develop an endogenous growth model in which technological progress raises the e±ciency of time allocated to education and knowledge and ideology play complementary roles in determining individuals' e±ciency units of labor input. A higher supply of ag- gregate units of e±ciency labor generates incentives to invent new technologies because it raises the monopoly rents from the introduction of such technologies. We show that economies with initally more \fact-consistent" ideologies are likely to invest more in ed- ucation and as a result experience faster technological progress and growth. Somewhat paradoxically, we also demonstrate that those economies that start out with relatively more fact-consistent ideologies are the ones likely to experience a weakening support for their ideologies. Support for °exible ideologies that evolve over time remains high even in the long run.
    [Show full text]
  • The Fair and Laissez-Faire Markets: from a Neoliberal Laissez- Faire Baseline to a Fair Market
    Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee Volume 5 Issue 1 Article 8 June 2014 The Fair and Laissez-Faire Markets: From a Neoliberal Laissez- Faire Baseline to a Fair Market Eric L. Dixon University of Tennessee, Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/pursuit Part of the Economic Policy Commons, Economic Theory Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Political Economy Commons, and the Public Policy Commons Recommended Citation Dixon, Eric L. (2014) "The Fair and Laissez-Faire Markets: From a Neoliberal Laissez-Faire Baseline to a Fair Market," Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee: Vol. 5 : Iss. 1 , Article 8. Available at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/pursuit/vol5/iss1/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Volunteer, Open Access, Library Journals (VOL Journals), published in partnership with The University of Tennessee (UT) University Libraries. This article has been accepted for inclusion in Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee by an authorized editor. For more information, please visit https://trace.tennessee.edu/pursuit. The Fair and Laissez-Faire Markets: From a Neoliberal Laissez-Faire Baseline to a Fair Market Cover Page Footnote I would like to thank David Reidy, Jon Garthoff, and especially Jon Shefner for their continued assistance of my studies in political economy and political philosophy. I would also like to thank my friends and family for their unconditional support. This article is available in Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee: https://trace.tennessee.edu/pursuit/vol5/iss1/8 Pursuit: The Journal of Undergraduate Research at the University of Tennessee Copyright © The University of Tennessee PURSUIT trace.tennessee.edu/pursuit Fair & Laissez-Faire Markets: From a laissez-faire baseline to a fair market conception ERIC L.
    [Show full text]
  • Sins of the Father by Conor Mc Cabe
    Sins of the Father 8693 Sins.indd 1 21/04/2011 12:27 8693 Sins.indd 2 21/04/2011 12:27 Sins of the Father TRACING THE DECISIONS THAT SHAPED THE IRISH ECONOMY Conor MCCabe 8693 Sins.indd 3 21/04/2011 12:27 First published 2011 The History Press Ireland 119 Lower Baggot Street Dublin 2 Ireland www.thehistorypress.ie © Conor McCabe, 2011 The right of Conor McCabe to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. isbn 978 1 84588 693 6 Typesetting and origination by The History Press Printed in Great Britain 8693 Sins.indd 4 21/04/2011 12:27 Contents Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 9 1 Housing 13 2 Agriculture 57 3 Industry 87 4 Finance 125 5 From Bank Guarantee to Bailout 153 Conclusion 191 Notes 197 Bibliography 211 Index 217 8693 Sins.indd 5 21/04/2011 12:27 8693 Sins.indd 6 21/04/2011 12:27 Acknowledgements Special thanks to: Donagh Brennan; my nephews Kevin and Jack Cleary; John Cleary; Ronan Colgan and the staff at History Press Ireland; Rudi Deda; Ciarán Finnegan; Daithí Flynn; Colm Hall; Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • A Triumph of Failed Ideas European Models of Capitalism in the Crisis —
    European Trade Union Institute Bd du Roi Albert II, 5 1210 Brussels Belgium Tel.: +32 (0)2 224 04 70 Fax: +32 (0)2 224 05 02 [email protected] www.etui.org A triumph of failed ideas European models of capitalism in the crisis Edited by Steffen Lehndorff A triumph of failed ideas The current crisis in Europe is being labelled, in mainstream media and politics, as a ‘public debt crisis’. The present book draws a markedly different picture. What European models of is happening now is rooted, in a variety of different ways, in the destabilisation of national models of capitalism due to the predominance of neoliberalism since capitalism in the crisis the demise of the post-war ‘golden age’. Ten country analyses provide insights into national ways of coping – or failing to cope – with the ongoing crisis. They — reveal the extent to which the respective socio-economic development models are unsustainable, either for the country in question, or for other countries. This Edited by assessment holds not just for ‘weak’ countries like Greece but equally for an Steffen Lehndorff allegedly ‘strong’ country like Germany. ideas of failed A triumph Lehndorff by Steffen Edited The bottom-line of the book is twofold. First, there will be no European reform agenda at all unless each country does its own homework. Second, and equally urgent, is a new European reform agenda without which alternative approaches in individual countries will inevitably be suffocated. This message, delivered by the country chapters, is underscored by more general chapters on the prospects of trade union policy in Europe and on current austerity policies and how they interact with the new approaches to economic governance at the EU level.
    [Show full text]
  • The Irish Crisis Did Not Manifest Itself Until a Year Later
    The U.S. and Irish Credit Crises: Their Distinctive 1 Differences and Common Features Gregory Connor Thomas Flavin Brian O’Kelly NUI Maynooth NUI Maynooth Dublin City University March, 2010 Comments welcome. Abstract: Although the US credit crisis precipitated it, the Irish credit crisis is an identifiably separate one, which might have occurred in the absence of the U.S. crash. The distinctive differences between them are notable. Almost all the apparent causal factors of the U.S. crisis are missing in the Irish case; and the same applies vice-versa. At a deeper level, we identify four common features of the two credit crises: capital bonanzas, irrational exuberance, regulatory imprudence, and moral hazard. The particular manifestations of these four “deep” common features are quite different in the two cases. 1 Contact addresses: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. We wish to acknowledge support from the Science Foundation of Ireland under grant 08/SRC/FM1389. 1 Introduction This paper compares the two linked, but separate, credit crises in the U.S. and Ireland, explores the differences between them, and reaches some tentative conclusions about the “deep” common features which caused them. The two crises are interesting theoretically since, although they occurred near-simultaneously in two closely linked economies, from a superficial perspective they are quite different. The two main building blocks for explaining the U.S. crisis, subprime mortgages and mortgage- related securities, are almost entirely absent from the Irish capital market and from Irish financial institutions’ balance sheets. Three of the four main catalysts for the Irish crises are absent from the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Henry George - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
    Henry George - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_George Henry George From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American writer, politician and political Classical economics economist, who was the most influential proponent of the land value tax, also known as the "Single Tax" on land. He inspired the philosophy and economic ideology known as Georgism, that holds that everyone owns what they create, but that everything found in nature, most importantly land, belongs equally to all humanity. His most famous work is Progress and Poverty written in 1879; it is a treatise on inequality, the cyclical nature of industrial economies and possible remedies. Contents 1 Biography Henry George 2 Policy proposals 2.1 Monopolies Birth September 21, 1839 2.2 Chinese immigration Death October 29, 1897 (aged 58) 2.3 The Single Tax on Land 2.4 Free Trade Nationality American 2.5 Secret Ballots Contributions Georgism; studied land as a factor in 3 Political career economic inequality and business 4 Subsequent influence cycles; proposed land value tax 5 Economic contributions 6 Notes 7 References 8 Bibliography 9 See also 10 External links Biography George was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a lower-middle class family, the second of ten children of Richard S. H. George and Catharine Pratt (Vallance) George. His formal education ended at age 14 and he went to sea as a foremast boy at age 15 in April 1855 on the Hindoo, bound for Melbourne and Calcutta. He returned to Philadelphia after 14 months at sea to become an apprentice typesetter before settling in California.
    [Show full text]
  • Michael Hudson 17/09/13 2:58 PM
    The Mathematical Economics of Compound Rates of Interest: A Four-Thousand Year Overview Part I | Michael Hudson 17/09/13 2:58 PM Log In Michael Hudson On finance, real estate and the powers of neoliberalism Home About Books Interviews Speeches RSS The Mathematical Economics of Compound Rates of Interest: A Four-Thousand Year Overview Part I January 24, 2004 By Michael “Whoever enters here must know mathematics.” That was the motto of Plato’s Academy. Emphasizing such abstract ratios as the Pythagorean proportions of musical temperament and the calendrical regularities of the sun, moon and planets, its philosophy used the mathematics of nature to reveal an underlying harmony and order in the universe and hence, in an ideal society. But there was little quantitative analysis of economic relations. Although the Greek and Roman economies were increasingly wracked by debt, there was no measurement of this phenomenon, or of overall production, distribution and other macroeconomic measures. The education of modern economists still consists largely of higher mathematics whose use remains more metaphysical than empirically measuring the most important trends. Over a century ago John Shield Nicholson (1893:122) remarked that “The traditional method of English political economy was more recently attacked, or rather warped,” by pushing the hypothetical or deductive side . to an extreme by the adoption of mathematical devices. less able mathematicians have had less restraint and less insight; they have mistaken form for substance, and the expansion of a series of hypotheses for the linking together of a series of facts. This appears to me to be especially true of the mathematical theory of utility.
    [Show full text]