DOCSLIB.ORG

Main Concepts and Principles of Political Economy - Production and Values, Distribution and Prices, Reproduction and Profits Christian Flamant

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Main Concepts and Principles of Political Economy - Production and Values, Distribution and Prices, Reproduction and Profits Christian Flamant Main Concepts and Principles of Political Economy - Production and Values, Distribution and Prices, Reproduction and Profits Christian Flamant To cite this version: Christian Flamant. Main Concepts and Principles of Political Economy - Production and Values, Distribution and Prices, Reproduction and Profits. In press. hal-02161861 HAL Id: hal-02161861 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02161861 Submitted on 21 Jun 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Main Concepts and Principles of Political Economy Production and Values, Distribution and Prices, Reproduction and Profits Prelude to a Reconstruction of Economic Theory by Christian Flamant 1 Main Concepts and Principles of Political Economy By Christian Flamant Copyright © 2018 Christian Flamant Deposit certificate: 3DVJ1J9-10 September 2018 (France) Case # 1-6938394841 (US Copyright Office) All rights reserved. ISBN: to follow __________________ All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission, in writing, from the publisher. 2 To my wife Anne, And my children Nicolas, Aurélie, Alexandre and Camille 3 4 Preface The intention to write this book arose from the double ascertainment that economic science is in deep trouble, to such a point that it can hardly be considered as a science, but that at the same time no prominent economist has so far published a book which could be widely considered as a true reconstruction of this science, based on solid foundations. When I use the terms “economic science”, I refer to the theory that is socially considered as constitutive of this science, because it is widely taught in all universities over the world and developed in numerous articles published in the most prestigious economic reviews, i.e. the neo-classical theory, based on the paradigm of equilibrium on the market as the best way to allocate scarce resources. This theory has nevertheless failed, on two different but related grounds. First, at a purely theoretical level the theory has been criticized and refuted over the years by a number of heterodox economists. The best synthesis of all these criticisms might well be the book of Steve Keen: “Debunking Economics”, published in 2001 for the first edition, and in 2011 for a revised and expanded edition. Second, at a more concrete and empirical level, neo-classical theory has been the doctrinal basis of neo-liberal economic policies implemented in most developed economies by almost all governments, whatever their location on the political spectrum, since 1980. These policies have in the vast majority of rich countries encouraged changes in favor of liberalization, financialization and globalization, which have resulted in disastrous consequences worldwide, i.e. a global reduction in the rate of growth, a rise in unemployment and finally the world financial crisis of 2008, which the neo-classical theory had been unable to foresee, and is still unable to explain correctly. To be sure a small number of economists had predicted the occurrence of the crisis, and Steve Keen was one of them. His own explanations can be found in a series of articles which have been regrouped in a new book, published in 2015: “Developing an economics for the post- crisis world”. These explanations can also be found in chapter 14 of “Debunking Economics” (second edition), which develops a monetary model of capitalism. This model relies on a Keynesian theory of money, as interpreted in particular in the works of Minsky. On this basis Keen develops a theory of debt which is consistent and has great heuristic value. However none of his two books can be considered as a full-fledged economic theory, encompassing an integrated theory of production, distribution, values and prices. Indeed, after examining various theoretical alternatives to neo-classical theory, in the last two chapters of Debunking Economics, Keen himself recognizes that “at present, however, the various non neo-classical schools of thought have no coherent theory of value as an alternative to the neoclassical school’s flawed subjective theory of value” (page 443). This is undoubtedly a big problem, because it is a “central organizing concept” (ibid.). Economic theory still needs therefore to be reconstructed, and as for any construction, this has to start from the very foundations of economic analysis. These foundations are the essential characteristics which constitute the logical fundaments of a theory, and therefore its main and primary assumptions, allowing to define its basic concepts. This is the reason why they are 5 called principles. To try and define such fundamentals principles was therefore the main motivation for writing this book. As for its epistemological bases, they rely on the idea that the world of experience exists independently of the theories that try to explain it, and that each theory is nothing else than a picture of the world. I refer here to what Wittgenstein wrote in his Tractatus Logico- Philosophicus: “a picture is a model of reality” (Wittgenstein, 1921, p. 9). Each theory has its own set of concepts, which constitute a paradigm, in the sense that Kuhn gave to this word, on second thoughts, i.e. “ ‘a disciplinary matrix’ - ‘disciplinary’ because it is the common possession of the practitioners of a professional discipline and ‘matrix’ because it is composed of ordered elements of various sorts” (Kuhn, 1974, p. 3). These elements are symbolic generalizations, models, and exemplars, the latter being defined as “concrete problem solutions, accepted by the group as, in a quite usual sense, paradigmatic” (Kuhn, 1974, p. 4). A paradigm can be analyzed as a system of concepts, and in such a system a special emphasis must be placed on these particular concepts which are the basic and simple assumptions underlying the other elements of the system. These assumptions constitute by themselves a set of concepts which are explained and defined on the basis of the experience that we can derive from our perception of the real world. A concept is always an element which can be defined only through its relations within the system of concepts to which it belongs. But what makes the specificity of these assumptions that can be considered as principles is that they must relate to a context which is outside the theory per se, because it is the world of experience as we perceive it. The role of these principles is indeed a fundamental one, since they define the nature and give its signification to the object which is built by a theory. They constitute indeed the semantics of a theory. A problem can therefore arise when some of these assumptions are implicit, and when they happen to be contradictory to other implicit or explicit assumptions or to the process of construction of some concepts. The view on which this book is based is that it is indeed what has befallen to the neo-classical theory: despite the fact that the syntax of this theory, under the form of an impressive mathematical apparatus, is generally correct, the loose definition of its principles has resulted in a semantics which is highly flawed, and made it unable to give a coherent description of the world as it is. This inherent shift from reality will ultimately lead to the loss of its scientific statute. It is to contribute to this process that this book has been written and it is why it will attempt to rebuild economic theory from its main concepts and principles. If it will do so by trying to stick to the common perception that ordinary human beings can have of the real world, it will also try to use the teachings of various theories, considered as scientific ones, which have been developed in other unrelated fields of knowledge, such as the mathematical theory of measurement or the physical theory of dimensional analysis. 6 “Pure logical thinking cannot yield us any knowledge of the empirical world; all knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it. Propositions arrived at by purely logical means are completely empty as regards reality.” Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions (1933) 7 8 CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................. 13 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ........................................................................................ 17 Chapter 1. Introduction: the basic concepts and principles. Commodities, Exchange and Money ....................................................................................................................................... 19 PART I - PRODUCTION WITH A SURPLUS: A THEORETICAL DEAD-END ............... 37 Chapter 2. The Ricardian theory of production, distribution and value ................................... 39 Chapter 3. Distribution and prices in Piero Sraffa’s theory ..................................................... 61 Chapter 4. Commodities do not produce commodities: the biased concept
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Economics for Real People
    Economics for Real People An Introduction to the Austrian School 2nd Edition Economics for Real People An Introduction to the Austrian School 2nd Edition Gene Callahan Copyright 2002, 2004 by Gene Callahan All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles. Published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute, 518 West Magnolia Avenue, Auburn, Alabama 36832-4528. ISBN: 0-945466-41-2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Dedicated to Professor Israel Kirzner, on the occasion of his retirement from economics. My deepest gratitude to my wife, Elen, for her support and forbearance during the many hours it took to complete this book. Special thanks to Lew Rockwell, president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, for conceiving of this project, and having enough faith in me to put it in my hands. Thanks to Jonathan Erickson of Dr. Dobb’s Journal for per- mission to use my Dr. Dobb’s online op-eds, “Just What Is Superior Technology?” as the basis for Chapter 16, and “Those Damned Bugs!” as the basis for part of Chapter 14. Thanks to Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Insti- tute for permission to use his phrase, “social justice, rightly understood,” as the title for Part 4 of the book. Thanks to Professor Mario Rizzo for kindly inviting me to attend the NYU Colloquium on Market Institutions and Eco- nomic Processes. Thanks to Robert Murphy of Hillsdale College for his fre- quent collaboration, including on two parts of this book, and for many fruitful discussions.
    [Show full text]
  • Prices and Production and Other Works: F.A
    PRICES AND PRODUCTION AND OTHER WORKS: F.A. HAYEK ON MONEY, THE BUSINESS CYCLE, AND THE GOLD STANDARD The Ludwig von Mises Institute thanks Mr. Toby Baxendale for his magnificent sponsorship of the publication of this book. Prices and Production and Other Works: F.A. Hayek on Money, the Business Cycle, and the Gold Standard Preface by Danny Quah Foreword by Toby Baxendale Edited with an Introduction by Joseph T. Salerno Ludwig von Mises Institute Auburn, Alabama Copyright 2008 Ludwig von Mises Institute Hayek photograph on back cover courtesy of The Cambridgeshire Collection, Cambridge Central Library. For information, write the Ludwig von Mises Institute, 518 West Magnolia Avenue, Auburn, Alabama 36832, U.S.A. mises.org. ISBN: 978-1-933550-22-0 Contents Preface by Danny Quah . vii Foreword by Toby Baxendale . .xi Introduction by Joseph T.Salerno . .xv Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle (1933) . 1 Preface by F.A. Hayek . 3 1. The Problem of the Trade Cycle . 9 2. Non-Monetary Theories of the Trade Cycle . 23 3. Monetary Theories of the Trade Cycle . 51 4. The Fundamental Cause of Cyclical Fluctuations . 73 5. Unsettled Problems of Trade Cycle Theory . 105 The “Paradox” of Saving (1929, 1931) . 131 Prices and Production (1931, 1935) . 189 Preface to the Second Edition . 191 Lecture 1: Theories of the Influence of Money on Prices . 197 Lecture 2: The Conditions of Equilibrium between the Production of Consumers’ Goods and the Production of Producers’ Goods . 223 Lecture 3: The Working of the Price Mechanism in the Course of the Credit Cycle . 253 Appendix to Lecture 3: A Note on the History of the Doctrines Developed in the Preceding Lecture .
    [Show full text]
  • A Roundabout Approach to Macroeconomics 2
    A Roundabout Approach to Macroeconomics 2 another matter. Here, the time element is a debilitating problem: These expectations, if you can call them that, are baseless. The future is shrouded in an impenetrable fog of uncertainty, leaving the current level of investment spending to be determined by unruly psychological factors—Keynes’s infamous “animal spirits.” The resultant circular flow will gush and ebb and even on average may not entail enough flow to fully employ the labor force. The circular-flow framework, exercised in both its short-run and long-run modes, seems to me to be exactly the wrong framework for understanding and dealing with the A Roundabout Approach to Macroeconomics: time element in macroeconomics. Identifying the polar cases of “no problem” and Some Autobiographical Reflections* “debilitating problem” doesn’t get us any closer to a solution to all those intermediate cases lying between the poles. The tell-tale feature that inevitably characterizes this framework has been recognized in recent years by Robert Solow (1997)—namely the Roger W. Garrison** lack of any “real coupling” (Solow’s term) between the short run and the long run. In Solow’s reckoning, the two runs simply divide our discipline’s subject matter into (1) the problem of maintaining full employment of existing resources and (2) the I. Introduction: Setting the Stage determinants of economic growth. “Roundaboutness” is a concept featured in Austrian capital theory. Homely stories A viable alternative to the Keynesian circular flow framework is the Austrian about the bare-handed catching of fish are a prelude to a discussion of the economy’s means-ends framework.
    [Show full text]
  • Economics-For-Real-People.Pdf
    Economics for Real People An Introduction to the Austrian School 2nd Edition Economics for Real People An Introduction to the Austrian School 2nd Edition Gene Callahan Copyright 2002, 2004 by Gene Callahan All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles. Published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute, 518 West Magnolia Avenue, Auburn, Alabama 36832-4528. ISBN: 0-945466-41-2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Dedicated to Professor Israel Kirzner, on the occasion of his retirement from economics. My deepest gratitude to my wife, Elen, for her support and forbearance during the many hours it took to complete this book. Special thanks to Lew Rockwell, president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, for conceiving of this project, and having enough faith in me to put it in my hands. Thanks to Jonathan Erickson of Dr. Dobb’s Journal for per- mission to use my Dr. Dobb’s online op-eds, “Just What Is Superior Technology?” as the basis for Chapter 16, and “Those Damned Bugs!” as the basis for part of Chapter 14. Thanks to Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Insti- tute for permission to use his phrase, “social justice, rightly understood,” as the title for Part 4 of the book. Thanks to Professor Mario Rizzo for kindly inviting me to attend the NYU Colloquium on Market Institutions and Eco- nomic Processes. Thanks to Robert Murphy of Hillsdale College for his fre- quent collaboration, including on two parts of this book, and for many fruitful discussions.
    [Show full text]
  • The Austrian Marginalists: Menger, Böhm-Bawerk, and Wieser Steven Horwitz
    262 S. HORWITZ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN The Austrian Marginalists: Menger, Böhm-Bawerk, and Wieser Steven Horwitz 17.1 INTRODUCTION This chapter delineates the nature of the Austrian contribution to the marginalist revolution in the works of Carl Menger, Eugen Böhm-Bawerk, and Friederich Wieser. Although it will be unavoidably comparative, the focus will be on the origins and development of a distinct line of Austrian marginalism, particularly in the work of Menger. That is, the goal is not just to show that the Austrians marginalists were saying something different; rather, it is also to trace how those differences, which begin with Menger, were to play themselves out in the work of the next generation of Austrians. In particular, as the classic contributions of Erich Streissler (1972) and William Jaffé (1976) have noted, it was the subjectivism of the Austrians that distinguished them from the other marginalist revolutionaries. Subjectivism constitutes the thread that united the Austrian marginalists, although it is a thread that began to weaken with the work of Wieser and Böhm-Bawerk and was almost totally lost by the 1920s. It was to be rediscovered during the late 1930s and 1940s, when developments elsewhere in economics forced the Austrians of the time to reassess what both they and others were talking about with respect to “neoclassical” economics. THE AUSTRIAN MARGINALISTS: MENGER, BÖHM-BAWERK, AND WIESER 263 17.2 CARL MENGER’S SUBJECTIVIST MARGINALISM The distinctly Austrian strand of the marginalist revolution begins with Carl Menger’s path-breaking Grundsatze, or Principles, published in 1871. Like others of his time, Menger was steeped in the tradition of the older German historicists, and it is fairly clear that the Principles was Menger’s attempt to bring that tradi- tion forward.
    [Show full text]
  • The Economics and Ethics of Private Property
    The Economics and Ethics of Private Property Studies in Political Economy and Philosophy Second Edition Hans-Hermann Hoppe Ludwig von Mises Institute AUBURN, ALABAMA Copyright © 1993 by Kluwer Academic Publishers Copyright © 2006 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews. For information write the Ludwig von Mises Institute, 518 West Magnolia Avenue, Auburn, Alabama 36832. ISBN 13: 978-0-945466-40-6 ISBN 10: 0-945466-40-4 TO MURRAY N. ROTHBARD CONTENTS Preface to the Second Edition . ix Preface to the First Edition. xi PART ONE - ECONOMICS 1 Fallacies of the Public Goods Theory and the Production of Security . 3 2 The Economics and Sociology of Taxation . 33 3 Banking, Nation States, and International Politics: A Sociological Reconstruction of the Present Economic Order . 77 4 Marxist and Austrian Class Analysis . 117 5 Theory of Employment, Money, Interest, and the Capitalist Process: The Misesian Case Against Keynes. 139 6 How is Fiat Money Possible?—or, The Devolution of Money and Credit . 175 7 Against Fiduciary Media . 205 8 Socialism: A Property or Knowledge Problem? . 255 PART TWO - PHILOSOPHY 9 On Praxeology and the Praxeological Foundation of Epistemology . 265 10 Is Research Based on Causal Scientific Principles Possible in the Social Sciences? . 295 11 From the Economics of Laissez Faire to the Ethics of Libertarianism. 305 12 The Justice of Economic Efficiency . 331 13 On the Ultimate Justification of the Ethics of Private Property.
    [Show full text]
  • New Perspectives on Political Economy a Bilingual Interdisciplinary Journal Vol
    New PersPectives oN Political ecoNomy A bilingual interdisciplinary journal Vol. 10, No. 1, 2014 New PersPectives oN Political ecoNomy A bilingual interdisciplinary journal / Vol. 10, No. 1, 2014 New Perspectives on Political Economy is a peer-reviewed semi-annual bilingual interdisci- plinary journal, published since 2005 in Prague. The journal aims at contributing to schol- arship at the intersection of political science, political philosophy, political economy and law. The main objective of the journal is to enhance our understanding of private property-, market- and individual liberty-based perspectives in the respected sciences. We also belive that only via exchange among social scientists from different fields and cross-disciplinary research can we critically analyze and fully understand forces that drive policy-making and be able to spell out policy implications and consequences. The journal welcomes submis- sions of unpublished research papers, book reviews, and educational notes. Published by CEVRO institute academic Press editorial address: New Perspectives on Political Economy CEVRO Institute, Jungmannova 17, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic Manuscripts should be submitted electronically. All manuscripts and correspondence should be addressed to [email protected]. Full text available via DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals and also via EBSCO Publishing databases. InformatioN for authors Authors submitting manuscripts should include abstracts of not more than 250 words and JEL classification codes. New Perspectives on Political Economy edits for clarity, brevity, and in accordance with the Chicago Manual of Style. Authors should use footnotes rather than endnotes or in-text references, and must include complete bibliographical information. Authors should include information on their titles and professional affiliations, along with e-mail address.
    [Show full text]
  • Ludwig Von Mises's Approach to Capital As a Bridge Between
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Publikationsserver der Technischen Universität Clausthal Ludwig von Mises’s approach to capital as a bridge between Austrian and Institutional Economics Eduard Braun Institute of Management and Economics, Clausthal University of Technology, Clausthal- Zellerfeld, Germany [email protected] Peter Lewin Naveen Jindal School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson (TX), U.S. [email protected] Nicolás Cachanosky Department of Economics, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Denver (CO), U.S. [email protected] Abstract: Ludwig von Mises seems to be something of an outlier within the Austrian school when it comes to capital – though his position is clearly foreshadowed in a neglected article by Carl Menger (1888). In this paper we examine Mises’s view on capital and suggest that it constitutes a bridge between Austrian and institutional economics. As an outflow of Mises’s approach, an incipient financial approach may be discerned, an approach to capital that integrates concepts from financial theory into a broader view of capital that contains both institutional and Austrian elements. Keywords: Theory of capital; Capitalism; Historically specific institutions; Monetary calculation JEL classification: B52, B53, D24, P10 Acknowledgements: Lewin would like to acknowledge helpful discussions with Steven Horwitz and helpful comments from the members of the NYU colloquium on Austrian economics. 1. Introduction Ludwig von Mises never produced a work devoted solely to an exploration of the meaning of capital or its role in the economy. Other Austrian school economists like Böhm-Bawerk (1889), Hayek (1941), Lachmann (1956), and Kirzner (1966) all published books on the subject, in addition to numerous articles.
    [Show full text]
  • Austrian Economics an Introductory Overview
    HSG Pluralist Economics Kiel | Kiel, 1 June 2016 Austrian Economics An Introductory Overview Prof. Dr. Stefan Kooths Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Forecasting Center Business and Information Technology School (BiTS), Campus Berlin KOOTHS | Austrian Economics – An Introductory Overview 1 Agenda . Introduction . Human Action . Goods, value, and price . Entrepreneurship and market processes . Money . Production, capital, and interest . Business cycles and crises . Epistemology and applications KOOTHS | Austrian Economics – An Introductory Overview 2 Agenda . Introduction . Human Action . Goods, value, and price . Entrepreneurship and market processes . Money . Production, capital, and interest . Business cycles and crises . Epistemology and applications KOOTHS | Austrian Economics – An Introductory Overview 3 General perspective . “Austrian” Economics? » Methodenstreit with German Historical School Pronounced pro-theory approach in economics . Cradle of modern economic thinking » Marginal revolution, concept of opportunity costs » Subjectivist theory of value » Methodological individualism Next significant stage of economics after the classics . Criticism of homo oeconomicus and Neoclassics » Over-simplistic assumptions (economic core is assumed away) » “Pure-and-perfect competition” as model without true competition (e.g. problem of representative firms) » Problematic macro-micro-dichotomy Economics as a social science, comprehensive view on entrepreneurs KOOTHS | Austrian Economics – An Introductory Overview 4 Holistic approach
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded from Elgar Online at 09/26/2021 06:52:48AM Via Free Access 382 Elgar Companion to Hayekian Economics
    Index 1980s Unemployment and the Unions Banking Policy and the Price Level (book) 314, 320, 321, 322 (book) 101 1984 (novel) 372 Barber, Benjamin 263 Bardhan, Pranab 289, 290 ‘acceleration of time’ 345, 346 Barry, Norman 7–9, 240 accounting prices 65, 248, 249 Bartley III, W.W. 116 A Century of Bank Rate (book) 30 Bellante, Don 23 ‘adverbial rules’ 210 Bentham, Jeremy 17–18 aggregate demand 13, 96–7, 98, 106, Berle, Adolf 281 326, 327–8 Beveridge, William 110 American Steel Foundries v. Tri-City Blaug, Mark 59–60, 62 Central Trades Council (1921) 337 ‘blind faith’ 365–6 ‘Anglo-American approach’ 72 Böhm-Bawark, Eugen von anti-rationalistic approachj 210–11 and Austrian school 141 Aréna, Richard 28, 31 and capital theory 23, 25, 166, 168, Armentano, Dominick 335–6 182–3 Arrow–Debreu model 249 influence on Hayek 12, 37, 58 Austrian Institute for Business Cycle as ‘master’ 147 Research 1, 47–8, 144–5 and Mises 140 Austrian school of economics Buchanan, James 255, 344, 350 and capital theory 25, 26, 47–9, Burke, Edmund 225 57–8, 67, 73–4, 91–2, 166–7, business (trade) cycles 173–4 and capital theory 25, 49, 71, 82–4, and competition policy 36–7 86 hostility towards 35 and central-bank policy 132–4 intellectual paths of 11 and change in Hayek’s economic and Lachmann 165–6 theory 110 and macroeconomics 13–14 and consumption goods 19–21, 23 and market processes 130–31 and credit expansion 133–4 and methodological individualism 1 and ‘cumulative process’ 19 and methodological subjectivism 154 empirical weakness of theory 30 and Mises 138–41 and enhanced factor incomes 19 and monetary policy 346, 357 and enterprise 21 and neoclassicism 197 and entrepreneurship 20 and price system 60 and equilibrium analysis 196–7 and socialist calculation debate and full employment 21 278–9, 281–2, 286, 288, 290 and general equilibrium theory 5 and spontaneous order 226, 231, and Hayek’s relationship with 240, 242 Lachmann 166 and subjectivism 1 and Hayek’s rivalry with Keynes 1 Backhouse, Roger 35, 36 and industrial fluctuations 51, 53, bank lending 19, 21, 26, 27–8 57–8 381 Roger W.
    [Show full text]
  • Mountifort Longfield 1802-1884: Economist and Lawyer Author(S): Alan A
    Mountifort Longfield 1802-1884: economist and lawyer Author(s): Alan A. Tait Reviewed work(s): Source: Hermathena, No. 133 (Winter 1982), pp. 15-28 Published by: Trinity College Dublin Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23040399 . Accessed: 20/11/2012 09:29 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Trinity College Dublin is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Hermathena. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:29:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Mountifort Longfield 1802-1884: economist and lawyer* by Alan A. Tail I in Mountifort Longfield is an arresting name. He was born 1802, son of the Reverend Mountifort Longfield, in a place with another unusual name, Desert Serges of Desert Magee (near Mallow). He was brought up firmly entrenched in Burke's landed gentry, and, like so many of his peers, on leaving school he went to T.C.D. In 1823, he took his degree in science and was one of the early gold medalists of the College.
    [Show full text]
  • The Austrian School of Economics
    THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS – AN INTRODUCTION By Thorsten Polleit THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS – AN INTRODUCTION Preface The purpose of this handout is to provide an elementary introduction to the essential ide- as of the Austrian School of Economics. The theoretical issues and their practical applications presented therein draw heavily on the work of many brilliant scholars of the Austrian School of Economics. I hope the booklet makes for rewarding and eye-opening reading, especially so at a time when mainstream economics has become (again) dominated by anti-free-market– and anti-freedom minded methodologies and teachings. Thorsten Polleit Frankfurt, June 2013 VERSION JUNE 2013 ▪ 2 THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS – AN INTRODUCTION “Economics must not be relegated to classrooms and statis- tical offices and must not be left to esoteric circles. It is the philosophy of human life and action and concerns every- body and everything. It is the pith of civilization and of man’s human existence.” ––Mises, L. v. (1996), Human Action, 4th ed., Fox & Wilkes, San Francisco, p. 878. Ludwig von Mises 1881 – 1973 VERSION JUNE 2013 ▪ 3 THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS – AN INTRODUCTION Differences between the Austrian School and the Neoclassical Schools (1) Source: de Soto, H. (1998), The ongoing Methodenstreit of the Austrian School, p. 78. VERSION JUNE 2013 ▪ 4 THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS – AN INTRODUCTION Differences between the Austrian School and the Neoclassical Schools (2) Source: de Soto, H. (1998), The ongoing Methodenstreit of the Austrian School, p. 79. VERSION JUNE 2013 ▪ 5 THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS – AN INTRODUCTION “[S]ince the early origins of the State, its rulers have always turned, as a neces- sary bolster to their rule, to an alliance with society’s class of intellectuals.
    [Show full text]