Steve Toms (York): Calculating Profit: A Historical Perspective on the Development of Capitalism. A review of Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World by Deirdre McCloskey (and more and more and more and more). Matthew Richardson on how market failure cannot be resolved without regulation. A review of The Little Book of Economics: How the Economy Works in the Real World by Greg Ip. How can we understand a world that has proven far more complex than the most advanced economic models assumed? The question is far from academic (and more by Justin Fox). Theories tell you what something is; models tell you merely what something is partially like. The first chapter from Beyond the Invisible Hand: Groundwork for a New Economics by Kaushik Basu. We are not going to shop our way out of this mess, so what will return our economy to full-throttled life? Here are some ideas — some of them a little out there — from academics. A review of The Financial Crisis: Who is to Blame? by Howard Davies. What happens if we view the market as sacred space — Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” and all? Jeff Madrick reviews Seeds of Destruction: Why the Path to Economic Ruin Runs Through Washington, and How to Reclaim American Prosperity by Glenn Hubbard and Peter Navarro; Capitalism 4.0: The Birth of a New Economy in the Aftermath of Crisis by Anatole Kaletsky; and Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future by Robert B. Reich.
