I’ve started reading [amazon_link id=”0300213549″ target=”_blank” ]Hubris: Why economists failed to predict the crisis and how to avoid the next one[/amazon_link], by Meghnad Desai. It has this great quotation I’d forgotten (some time since I read it) from Adam Smith’s [amazon_link id=”0143105922″ target=”_blank” ]Theory of Moral Sentiments[/amazon_link]:
“The man of the system …. seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. He does not consider that the pieces upon the chess-board have no other principle of motion besides that which the hand impresses upon them; but that, in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might chuse to impress upon it.”
Echoes, too, of the fabulous [amazon_link id=”B00D8JJYWA” target=”_blank” ]Seeing Like A State[/amazon_link] by James Scott.
[amazon_image id=”0143105922″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Penguin Classics)[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”B00D8JJYWA” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (The Institution for Social and Policy St)[/amazon_image]
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Just found your blog its wonderful. I’m just just starting to learn about economics as a 55 year old retired businessman. Always had an interest buy the overarching big picture was fuzzy. I,am begining a OU degree in Economics/mathematical Sciences in October.
Would you be so kind to recommend me 1 book to get a concise overview of the different schools of thought within Economics. I am interested to see where on this scale I currently sit with my life experiences that no doubt will colour my views. I want to be exposed to different ideas and enjoy pondering them without having an already chosen party line. So a big picture bool that will give me a framework to hang my evolving ideas on.
Many thanks and now to exploring more of your site…….George
Hello George! and thanks so much for your kind comment about the blog. If you specifically want ‘schools of thought’, Ha Joon Chang’s new book ‘Economics’ covers this. For a general overview of current thinking – mainstream but with different perspectives noted – Tim Harford’s two books, The Undercover Economist and the Undercover Economist Strikes Back are terrific general intros. Meghnad Desai’s new book, Hubris, which I just reviewed here, is a bit more demanding than any of these (although still very clear) and also covers different approaches – it is mainly macroeconomics. You might also try some history of economic thought eg the books by Backhouse of Saandmo. But that’s enough – you probably have a long reading list for your course too!