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The Capitalist Alternative
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The main aim of this book is to introduce the ideas of the neo-Austrian school of economics and to compare these ideas with the more familiar methods of conventional or orthodox economics. Many well-known introductory textbooks meant for the use of prospective accountants or business studies graduates, whose main interest is not in economics, typically make great use of graphical diagrams of equilibrium situations. These often appear to students to have little usefulness or connection with reality, and unfortunately many people are put off economics as a result. Sometimes attempts are made to water down or force into rather unconvincing 'case studies' the apparatus ofmodern economic analysis, but this does not always work well. As a consequence, much that is both interesting and relevant tends to be missed out.
There are today several varieties of identifiable dissenting move- ments which reject the methodology of mainstream economics as it appears in most textbooks. The two most sharply opposed are Marxian economics (which is sometimes found under the label, Political Economy) and the neo-Austrian school. But criticism is commonly heard from many other directions. Nicholas Kaldor's view, as expressed in a lecture given in 1973, was that economic theory, as it appears in most regular university textbooks, is thoroughly misleading and useless. More recently Lord Balogh (1982) has attacked economists for their pretensions as scientists and their ceaseless construction of mathematical models that ignore so much of human nature, history and the uncertainty of expectations.
It is the claim of the neo-Austrian school that they offer some promising ways forward from the present 'crisis'. Whether the neo- Austrian school should be regarded as an entirely new and different perspective - an extraordinary science, to use Kuhn's term - or merely as an attempt to 'save late capitalism' is debatable
Alexander H. Shand - Personal Name
1st Edtion
0-7108-0231-5
NONE
The Capitalist Alternative
Economics
English
WHEA TSHEAFBOOKSL T
1984
Britain
1-257
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