Sunday, January 26, 2003

Neo-classical economics under attack (via RW)
"How do you start a fire under a huge wet blanket? A faction of disgruntled economists says that is their predicament. Their efforts to open the field to diverse views are smothered, they say, by an orthodoxy -- neoclassical economics and its derivatives -- that is indulgently theoretical and mathematical in its aspiration to be more "scientific" than any other social science."

In this article the usual critics - such as Marx and Veblen - are mentioned but again (as usual) George is not. A list of recent books critical of NCE is given at the end but it does not include Gaffney's "Neo-Classical economics as a stratagem against Henry George", surely by far the most challenging and interesting review of NCE in recent years. NCE equates land and capital in order to deflect georgism - a manifestly absurd position. George's Value Theory also provides the key to the riddle of markets and exploitation, which neither Marxism nor NCE have been able to properly grasp.

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