Reviews for Redeeming Economics Free Markets And the Human Person

The average rating for Redeeming Economics Free Markets And the Human Person based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-08-04 00:00:00 Jerry Carrico I appreciate that Mueller sees that there are significant problems with economics as a profession. I greatly appreciate his critique of Adam Smith and classical economics. I also like his survey of scholastic economics. However, I did not like his dismissal of Austrian Economics: Most of [Menger's] Austrian-school followers today reject even the mathematical description of economic events... Since without mathematical treatment, empirical verification of an economic theory is virtually impossible, despite its impressive beginnings Austrian-school economics has contributed relatively little in recent decades to the development of economic theory, and it has become virtually irrelevant to the formulation of economic policy." Setting aside the fact he sets this odd standard: that the ruling class, who formulates economic policy, are the arbiters of whose economic we should study, we'll look at another troubling aspect of his dismissal of Austrian-school economics—methodology. Since economics is a study of human action within space and time, we cannot apply scientific method to it and empirically test anything! We can look at empirical data from test group but we can never look at the data from the control group since there are not two parallel universes running simultaneously! We can however study economics through thought experiment and the logical deduction of irrefutable theory. The rest of Mueller's book which contains copious "empirical proofs" which differ little in their content from professional economics, despite coming to different conclusions (e.g. his discussion of abortion and crime). Most disappointing in his dismissal of Austrian-school economics is brings up Mises a few times merely as a foil and never once mentions Rothbard. Anyone who brings up the Austrian School without a mention of Rothbard has not dealt seriously with it. It would be like not mentioning Machiavelli in a discussion of Renaissance political theory, or redacting the name of Marx from a discussion of Communism. Without a serious critique of Austrian theory, Mueller has merely torn down the modern strawman of Keynesiansim and Monetarism, but he has pretended the formidable Austrian school does not exist. *A good companion to Redeeming Economics, especially Mueller's survey of economic history, is Murray Rothbard's Economic Thought Before Adam Smith and Classical Economics.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-07-19 00:00:00 Jewelrit Stewart This is a rather challenging read, and so even though I would recommend this book to others, I would do so with a bit of qualification. As a novice with no formal training in economics, I found the chapters outlining economic theory and the history reasonably understandable. For the chapters dealing with in-depth economic analyses, I found myself skipping large chunks, especially when it dealt with mathematical equations. Someone may have to make heads or tails of all that for me.