HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

The Big Three in Economics: Adam Smith, Karl…
Loading...

The Big Three in Economics: Adam Smith, Karl Marx, And John Maynard Keynes (edition 2007)

by Mark Skousen

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations
1183229,701 (2.9)None
History comes alive in this fascinating story of opposing views that continue to play a fundamental role in today's politics and economics. ""The Big Three in Economics"" traces the turbulent lives and battle of ideas of the three most influential economists in world history: Adam Smith, representing laissez faire; Karl Marx, reflecting the radical socialist model; and John Maynard Keynes, symbolizing big government and the welfare state. Each view has had a significant influence on shaping the modern world, and the book traces the development of each philosophy through the eyes of its creator… (more)
Member:rickmac45
Title:The Big Three in Economics: Adam Smith, Karl Marx, And John Maynard Keynes
Authors:Mark Skousen
Info:M.E. Sharpe (2007), Hardcover, 243 pages
Collections:Read, Your library
Rating:
Tags:None

Work Information

The Big Three in Economics: Adam Smith, Karl Marx, And John Maynard Keynes by Mark Skousen

None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

Showing 3 of 3
Smith, Adam (Subject); Marx, Karl (Subject); Keynes, John Maynard (Subject)
  LOM-Lausanne | Apr 30, 2020 |
It appears to be that Skousen did not take his time to carefully examine Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, because a lot of his assertions about Adam Smith's free trade theory seem to be nothing more than a synopsis of common myths -- and those common myths are often distorted interpretations of Adam Smith's real thought on free trade.

Adam Smith's practical objective in developing the argument for free trade differed from that of the classical and neoclassical economists after him. So did his "meaning" of free trade.

The Wealth of Nations was a reformist response to a pressing issue of international economic policy in the historical context. Adam Smith wrote this book to use facts to attack the misguided mercantilist doctrines (the economic equivalent of political absolutism and dominant in Europe in the 16th-18th centuries) which, at the time, boded to reduce the sum of economic exchange between England and France to smuggling. The very same mercantilist doctrines supported a corrupt and exploitative British colonial policy -- the flaws of which were self-evident to those who started the American Revolution in the same year that Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations was published. The book is Adam Smith's theoretical instrument to destroy the prevalent mercantilist doctrine and policy.

It seems to me that, for Adam Smith, international trade -- while certainly better "free" than in the hands of government-sponsored monopolies -- was something of a last resort for increasing the wealth of nations. Absent the artificial stimulus to foreign trade under mercantilism, the nation would be led to exploit the more productive domestic uses of capital, before investing large sums of capital in those less productive.

The author clearly portrays Karl Marx like a devil while worshiping Adam Smith like a saint.

His one-sided view reads more like a propaganda (to serve whatever cause) than an objective academic analysis on how these three great thinkers influenced the realm of economic thoughts and how their ideas are still relevant or irrelevant today.
( )
  sunrise_hues | Jul 8, 2015 |
경제
  leese | Nov 23, 2009 |
Showing 3 of 3
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

History comes alive in this fascinating story of opposing views that continue to play a fundamental role in today's politics and economics. ""The Big Three in Economics"" traces the turbulent lives and battle of ideas of the three most influential economists in world history: Adam Smith, representing laissez faire; Karl Marx, reflecting the radical socialist model; and John Maynard Keynes, symbolizing big government and the welfare state. Each view has had a significant influence on shaping the modern world, and the book traces the development of each philosophy through the eyes of its creator

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (2.9)
0.5
1 4
1.5
2 1
2.5
3 2
3.5 1
4 7
4.5
5

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,186,194 books! | Top bar: Always visible