The Vested Interests and the Common Man [Paperback]

Thorstein Veblen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2005

BCC: In The Vested Interests and the Common Man, long considered a classic text of economics, Veblen discusses various financial transformations within the historical unfolding of capitalism and examines the value of free enterprise in general. It emphasizes the automation and the loss of direct human relations within the industrial arts as well as social repercussions of capitalistic industry. AUTHOR BIO: Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) was an American economist and social critic. After studying at Carleton College and at Johns Hopkins, Yale-where he received a Ph.D. in 1884-and Cornell, Veblen taught at the University of Chicago, Stanford University, and the University of Missouri, as well as at the New School for Social Research in New York. His works include The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), The Theory of Business Enterprise (1904), The Engineers and the Price System (1921), and Absentee Ownership and Business Enterprise in Recent Times (1923).

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In The Vested Interests and the Common Man, long considered a classic text of economics, Veblen discusses various financial transformations within the historical unfolding of capitalism and examines the value of free enterprise in general. It emphasizes the automation and the loss of direct human relations within the industrial arts as well as social repercussions of capitalistic industry.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Cosimo Classics (May 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596051493
• ISBN-13: 978-1596051492
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,412,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Striking ideas fresh as ever, December 8, 2010

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Dimitri Rotov "Critic" (VA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Vested Interests and the Common Man (Paperback)

I was a bit put off by the cultural history build up in the first 30 or so pages but once Veblen hit his stride, I often had to put the book down to absorb the implications of his simple, direct, and useful views. Veblen was championed in my youth by John Kenneth Galbraith which caused me to delay reading him for 40 years; I assumed he was another tendentious hack of the same ilk as JKG. But Veblen is a searingly original thinker bestriding the left-right divide. He fully understands business and manufacturing operations in a way few or no economists do today and he deploys these insights in ways rarely found. I have no doubt that Veblen could manage an underwiting, conduct a time-motion study on the shop floor, reorganize management for greater productivity, and suggest to the board of whatever new ideas for raising capital. His discussion of how intangible values like business goodwill can be monetized through the creation of various financial instruments that create unearned income streams is almost a pre-requisite for understanding today's financial engineering of trading instruments independent of underlying collateral or deliverables. Meanwhile, Veblen's humor is like those easter eggs secreted in software programs - it surprises and delights throughout. This is a book I will reread many times.