31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Generates a wave of fresh insights into the human condition, March 26, 2011
This review is from: Redeeming Economics: Rediscovering the Missing Element (Culture of Enterprise) (Hardcover)
I come to this book via a circuitous background. I am a mathematician by training and worked on Wall Street as a strategist, portfolio manager, and risk analyst for a buy side equity firm until it folded in December 2008, a casualty of the financial crisis. In that context I studied a lot of economics on my own, reading Ricardo, George, Smith, Samuelson, Mises, Hayek, Keynes, Rothbard, Friedman, John Paul II, etc. Talking to Wall Street economists and strategists, juggling Keynesian, monetarist, and supply side forecasts, and incorporating them into our investment views (mostly by ignoring them!) was an education in itself. In any event, in the area of economics I am basically self-taught.
Along the way, I have come to believe more and more deeply that a free economy is the path to prosperity and the only moral social system. (Footnote: our current system is very far from a free economy - I would characterize it as "crony capitalism", or "corporatism".) I found the Austrian school of economics to be the most intellectually coherent, and its critique of "scientism" to be especially relevant in the devastation caused, in part, by overreliance on quantitative models of human behaviour.
That said, Mueller is no Austrian, and views Austrianism merely as one branch of the neo-classical school, which is not unfair. His approach to economics is based on Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas (the three A's), and he argues convincingly that the synthesis of these three sources contains and supercedes current theory. Along the way, he demolishes Adam Smith's contribution, and shows it to be a step backward from what was already known to the Scholastic School (and what he in fact taught before he wrote Wealth of Nations). It was also a direct precursor to the work of Marx, because if the labor theory of value is true, as Smith asserted, then it logically follows that landlords and capitalists indeed do "expropriate" the "surplus value" from the workers. What Smith did was ignore and suppress the role of utility in creating demand and as an explanation of value, a factor that was not unknown to the three A's. This factor was rediscovered by Menger, Walras, and Jevons - the marginalist revolution - and this was the genesis of the neo-classical school, whose hegemony Mueller thinks is coming to an end. He expects it to be superceded by a neo-Scholastic revolution.
After the marginalist revolution we had a theory for production, exchange, and utility. There's still one equation missing, and that is the equation for "final distribution". Here is where Augustine comes in. Along with a preference ranking for scarce means, which is the driver of marginal utility, all human beings also have a preference ranking for ends - which are persons. And it is this preference ranking which controls the final distribution of goods and services. This is the "missing ingredient" in economic theory, and Mueller shows that it can explain much that currently remains a mystery to the economic profession.
Mueller is a vastly educated man, and the book is a delightful exposure to many aspects of intellectual history. I love the way he thinks and writes. His ability to integrate, summarize and compare systems of thought is exciting and a great pleasure to observe. I am enjoying waves of fresh insights into the human condition, and expect to use his framework to gain further understanding.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, April 16, 2011
This review is from: Redeeming Economics: Rediscovering the Missing Element (Culture of Enterprise) (Hardcover)
I've taught economics and statistics at the high school level for thirty-five years, the last twenty-five in Jesuit institutions. I wrote Apostles and Markets as a way to bridge what I perceived to be a gap between Catholic social doctrine and sound economic analysis. As Mr. Mueller pointed out when he generously looked at some of the A&M lessons, my first attempt was trying to put a round peg (Chicago school economic analysis) in a square hole (Catholic social doctrines). He was correct. Mr. Mueller's book is the most profound book on the subject that I've ever seen. The enterprise to recover a coherent synthesis of economics and morality is a tremendous gift. It is a triumph of clearly expressed scholarship. It has inspired me to begin work on a second edition of Apostles and Markets, one that builds high school lessons on all four pillars of economic analysis from the Catholic scholastic synthesis. Economic freedom, properly understood, is a key element in this synthesis. Thank you John D. Mueller.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exceptional!, April 3, 2011
This review is from: Redeeming Economics: Rediscovering the Missing Element (Culture of Enterprise) (Hardcover)
Can't recommend this book enough. Clear, concise writing, and common sense approach are a breath of fresh air after all the other drivel that's out there. Do give this a go. Bravo Mr. Mueller!
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