tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post8056993709133171709..comments2023-12-20T04:18:41.617-06:00Comments on The Hunting of the Snark: Nobody Can Know Anything, EverSusan of Texashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00076915322771385454noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-77798712985996242522010-03-27T11:32:29.408-05:002010-03-27T11:32:29.408-05:00Once this is accepted, economics would again becom...<i>Once this is accepted, economics would again become a subsection of history and moral philosophy.</i><br />Hey, I'm all for it, as long as economists assume the same position with regard to government as historians and moral philosophers. And if all the ecomomics departments at universities will be treated the same way history and philosophy departments are now, I will be a happy man.bulbulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14505565281151328789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-70418649827540717222010-03-26T18:02:54.718-05:002010-03-26T18:02:54.718-05:00Reading the internets...
New issue of 'Real-W...Reading the internets...<br /><br />New issue of 'Real-World Economics Review' (Real-World as opposed to Neo-Liberal Orthodoxy)...<br /><br />An article here called Racism and Economics, looks interesting, clickity click...<br /><br />Oh it seems to be about Adam Smith, that great moral philospher...<br /><br />Quote: <i>Plantations, in other words, were part and parcel of the economic system that created the wealth that Adam Smith enjoyed when he was collecting material for his book The Wealth of Nations. Instead of telling us this history, which he knew not only because he would have witnessed it as a resident of Glasgow, but also because he met for years with the Glasgow merchants of tobacco, he tells us the story of the butcher, brewer, and the baker.<br /><br />This image of economics, and others like it, such as the invisible hand or the “natural” dynamics of markets, has dominated the past decades of Anglo-American economics. The combination of Smith not telling us how wealth was actually created in his city, and of supplying images of commerce that left no room for such stories, created a legacy of market optimism that continues to shield us from seeing how the economy really functions today.<br /><br />It is truly amazing that in the many current books on Adam Smith’s political philosophy, his ethics, and even his economics, one finds a total absence of reference to the Glasgow tobacco lords, or to the slave-based tobacco trade. <br /><br />After all, one of the first principles of understanding a text is to understand the context in which it was written. It is as if Smith’s context was as invisible as his “invisible hand’ of the market. Still, one must admit that if one only studied the written text, one would not know that the “opulence” Smith enjoyed in Glasgow came largely from the exploitation of the kidnapped Africans who labored on tobacco plantations in Virginia and Maryland. As a consequence of not knowing this story, or at least not admitting it, Smith’s economics have been used as the basis for believing that an unfettered market economy promotes human freedom.</i> End quote<br /><br />Source <a href="http://www.paecon.net/" rel="nofollow">here</a><br /><br />Looks like Mr Brooks is not reading the same 'Real-World' Economists as I am, Susan!Euripidesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-83844660307494931992010-03-26T15:43:53.407-05:002010-03-26T15:43:53.407-05:00After all, a lesser blogger wouldn't have reco...After all, a lesser blogger wouldn't have recognized that another Great Depresssion might be a bad thing.Downpuppyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10312490198813632190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2222630007427380394.post-29049780381308347252010-03-26T14:19:27.455-05:002010-03-26T14:19:27.455-05:00Wha....?? "...brilliant economic blogger Meg...Wha....?? "...brilliant economic blogger Megan McArdle"?!? Seriously, WTF?zeppohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08873751697687895179noreply@blogger.com