Chicago fundamentalism [[electronic resource] ] : ideology and methodology in economics / / Craig F. Freedman

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910455048503321
• Autore: Freedman Craig <1950->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Hackensack, NJ, : World Scientific, c2008
• ISBN: 981-281-201-6
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (472 p.)
• Disciplina: 330.1553
• Soggetti: Chicago school of economics - History; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Foreword: A Touch of the Billy Joels; Acknowledgements; Contents; Chapter 1 And Only I Was Left to Tell the Tale: Blindness as an Act of Will; 1. Picking Through the Methodological Slagheaps: How Not to be an Economist; 2. Nobody Here But Us Chickens: The Unappreciated Importance of Ideology; References; Part I. Resurrecting the Chicago Revolution: The Cold War and the Economics Profession; A. George Stigler; Chapter 2 George Joseph Stigler (1911-1991); References; Chapter 3 Power Without Glory - George Stigler's Market Leviathan; 1. Ricardo's Wrong Track - Distribution and Power; 1.1. Explaining rent1.2. What the market has wrought let no man rent asunder; 1.3. Stigler slices the Gordian Knot of economic power; 2. Freedom as Choice; 3. The Problem of Ideological Blinders; 4. Stigler and Post-War Economics - The Three Pillars of Wisdom; 5. Cold Warriors Fade Away - The Cost of Ideology; References; Chapter 4 Five Easy Pieces - George Stigler's Blueprint for a Counter-Revolution; 1. A Time and a Place; 2. A Good Egg Gives Some Lectures - The Background; 3. Conservatives of the World Unite - How the LSE Manifesto Created an Economic Framework; 3.1. Banking on a moral imperative3.2. A gorgon's look at monopolistic competition; 3.3. Redeeming the classical economists; 3.4. On being mathematically dysfunctional; 3.5. An economist plays a game of monopoly; 4. Future Directions - How These Lectures Influenced Stigler's Future Work; 5. The Race is to the Swiftest - What has Chicago ; Wrought?; References; Chapter 5 Countervailing Egos - Stigler versus Galbraith; 1. Matter and Anti-Matter; 2. A Survey of Contemptible Economics; 3. An Economist Plays with Blocs; 4. The Blocs Come Tumbling Down; Appendix A. Contents of a Survey of Contemporary EconomicsReferences; Chapter 6 Was George Stigler Adam Smith's Best Friend? - Studying the History of Economic Thought; 1. Field Versus Foundation; 2. Sheltered Workshops; 3. Adam Smith's George Stigler Problem; 4. The Advantage of Having a History; References; Chapter 7 Do Great Economists Make Great Teachers? - George Stigler as a Dissertation Supervisor; 1. Good Teacher/Good Researcher; 2. Protestant Fathers/Renegade Students; 3. Open Season on Ideas/Open Season on Students; References; B. Milton Friedman; Chapter 8 De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum - Milton Friedman 1912-20061. Bliss was It to be Young; 2. Reshaping Economics; 2.1. Permanent income hypothesis; 2.2. Quantity theory of money; 2.3. Natural rate of unemployment; 2.4. Positive economics; 3. Death of a Salesman; 4. Old Economists Never Die, They Only Slowly Fade Away; References; Chapter 9 Entre Nous - A Review of the Friedman-Stigler Correspondence; References; Chapter 10 Not for Love Nor Money: Milton Friedman's Counter-Revolution; 1. The Economist as Polemist - Using an Unpredictable Past; 1.1. John Maynard Keynes - economist as provocateur
• Sommario/riassunto: Cold-war ideology infected the development of economics in ways its practitioners were often not fully aware. The Chicago counter-revolution against the dominant post-war triumph of Keynesian analysis had an essential subtext, a perceived struggle between freedom and collective slavery. Ideological objectives subsequently influenced methodological concerns, pushing economists to adopt the zero-sum tactics of the courtroom rather than the mutually beneficial manners of the senior common room. In these ideologically charged times, economists stopped reading opposing views carefully, seeking inst