Debunking Economics: The Naked Emperor of the Social Sciences by Steve Keen
Zed Books, July 1st, 2001 (2007 Reprint)
I have read very little on economics. So little that I think I can list every book I’ve ever read on the subject with less than one hand:
Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell
The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek
The Return of the Great Depression by Vox Day
I read The Communist Manifesto once but I’m not sure that quite counts. I did listen to about an eighth of Wealth of the Nations as an audio book but not nearly enough to claim that I have read it. Along with these I’ve read a lot of articles as well as few books on the subject but always at the level of a layman. I have heard of Keynes, the Austrian School, Milton Friedman, Ricardo and many other names but don’t ask me for summaries on their perspectives or anything they’ve said on the subject. And let’s not forget that reading isn’t the same as understanding and I’ve never formally studied or gone very in-depth on the discipline. The author of the latter work on the list has highly recommended the subject of this review but it has been a decade since he recommended it and I’ve only recently got around to doing so.
I want to emphasise my ignorance here because I found this book (more so than the others), a rather difficult read and my level of understanding may be poor. This review is something of an exercise at synthesising what I have read. In case it wasn’t already clear — I’m the ignoramus. Continue reading