A Policy Framework for the New Chancellor

In the Mansion House speech, Mr. Clarke, the new Chancellor, left his options very clearly open. He reconfirmed his commitment, like his predecessors, to low inflation; but added that low inflation is not enough, asserting the importance of commerce. He asserted the need to reduce the public sector deficit, but did not commit himself to further measures beyond those already announced by Mr. Lamont. He argued for lower taxes, but said that taxes cannot always fall. He acknowledged the importance of narrow and broad money, but said that he would monitor a range of indicators in formulating policy. Even the greater emphasis relative to his predecessors on growth may have been more a matter of presentation, not a shift in policy emphasis.     

Nicole Oresme and Medieval Social Science The 14th Century Debunker of Astrology Wrote an Early Monetary Treatise

A bstract . Nicole Oresme practised the medieval equivalent of the modern sociological technique of debunking. He was born about 1320 and attended the College of Navarre in Paris. King John II and especially his son, Charles V, were patrons of Oresme's work. In a period when astrology was the dominant paradigm in the explanation of human behavior , Oresme wrote extensively denouncing it. His attacks were based on reason and experience, and went beyond the turgid scholastic form. He is particularly well known for his work in economics , one of the first integrated treatises on money policy. In Oresme we see a new sort of scientist emerging. He represents the transition from philosophical science to a science based on facts.     

Laurence Steven Moss, 1944–2009

Larry Moss lived a busy life as an academic, a professor, an attorney, a journal editor, and a skilled magician. He was a prolific publisher of scholarly articles and books, and an editor of scholarly volumes. With friendly charm and humor, he sought to encourage others in their scholarly pursuits. He employed his magical skills to enliven his courses and to illustrate certain economic phenomena. Larry served the History of Economics Society in important capacities, including its presidency. He sought "methodological tolerance" and interacted with scholars of different philosophical persuasions. He organized memorials for numerous other economists; it thus is fitting that we do so here for him.     

李连杰和他的企业家朋友们

他是中国把富人慈善和明星慈善对接的第一人。李连态的影响力，平台＋企业家的资金、实力及商业模式，他们各取所需，相互影响，使中国的慈善面貌为之一变。     

An Economics Classic and Plutology

A bstract . Henry George's Progress and Poverty , published a century ago, laid the foundation for a theory that attracted a worldwide following. He emphasized that political economy investigates the way a community produces wealth and the proportions in which that wealth will be distributed between individuals. In our day that has been called 'plutology' , a subdiscipline of political economy. Many of George's critics, then and now, act as apologists of the status quo, in society and in the academy. But the science's purview must be broader than plutology. Economics , to be relevant, must be useful in the solution of economic and social problems. In redirecting economists to their basic responsibility, George made a lasting contribution to economic science. He also was a perennial influence on economic scholar, even on some of his most antagonistic critics. But George is neglected because his doctrines were and are a threat to various establishments. However, by force of logic and through clarity of expression, he is a goad to the consciences of all folk of good will.     

李亚鹏寻找李亚鹏

他是演员,也是商人,而闯入生活中的女儿让他所寻找的自我更加清晰那双皮鞋看起来穿了很久,鞋面连着鞋底的那一圈儿被磨得泛了白,鞋型也有些变形,但这双鞋似乎让李亚鹏感到特别舒适:5月25日,李亚鹏第一次穿上嫣然天使儿童医院(以下简称嫣然医院)的董事会会服,出席第三届中美唇腭裂修复技术学术研讨会,这双棕色皮     

Economy as a Social System: Niklas Luhmann's Contribution and its Significance for Economics

Niklas Luhmann's (1927–1998) ambitious research project was aimed not only at describing society as a global social system, but it also analyzed various subsystems (including an economic one). The article assesses Luhmann's vision of the economy, summarized mainly in his Wirtschaft der Gesellschaft, wherein he addresses basic economic notions: the economic system, money, prices, rationality, and the market. I then interpret his ideas in the context of modern discussions in economics (intersubjective structures, complex systems, and evolutionary modeling). I also propose some heuristics implied by Luhmann's economic ontology, which are potentially interesting for methodological and theoretical strategies of modern economics.     

The Influence of Auguste Walras on Léon Walras

A bstract . Auguste Walras' interest in and contribution to economic theory were prompted mainly by his quest for a valid theory of property. After a critical analysis of the current theories of value , he singled out scarcity as the only significant cause of value. He concluded that land was scarce in a very special sense and, hence, should belong not to single individuals but to society as a whole. This is not, however, incompatible with private ownership of non-land capital. His famous son. Léon Walras , not only adopted this theory but also proved the feasibility of a laissez-faire type of economy in which land is nationalized. His debt to his father is also evident in his analysis of general economic equilibrium in which he makes use of valuable economic ideas and tools devised or inspired by Auguste Walras.     

Henry George: The Economist as Moralist*

Abstract . Henry George derived his economic theory from his personal experience. He had the good fortune to be living in California during his formative years; there the economic events which transpired during the settlement of the North American continent—the passing of the frontier and its consequences—occurred within a time span of a few years and the telescoping of history gave him the framework for an original economic system, as well as a utopian vision of a free society. Much attention has properly been paid to George's economic ideas but he was also a moralist, one accepted by some philosophers as among the greatest. This aspect of his work, and particularly his value theory, have been neglected.     

Free Money for Social Progress

A bstract Silvio Gesell (1862-1930) proposed a system of stamped money in order to accelerate monetary circulation and to free money from interest. This was part of a global socialist system intended to free the economy from rent and interest. In the 1930s, Irving Fisher, who proposed the system to President Roosevelt, and John Maynard Keynes rendered homage to Gesell's monetary proposals in the context of the economic depression. Several experiments took place that were based on his ideas, notably in the Austrian town of Wörgl and in the United States. These experiments were always local and never lasted more than a few months. This article shows that trust is the main issue of this kind of monetary organization; and therefore, that such experiments can only take place successfully on a small scale.     

Crossing the Boundary of Economics and Sociology: The Case of Vilfredo Pareto

The aim of the paper is to present the economic sociology of Vilfredo Pareto. We argue that Pareto represents a mode of thinking that has not been used in economic sociology and barely considered in the other branches of sociology. We reject the habitual bifurcation of Pareto into "the economist" and "the sociologist." Pareto stresses the non-logical parts of human life, and he provides empirical examples of this in his writing. He was occupied with the dynamics in society as a result mainly of non-logical actions. We show how one may speak of a distinctly Paretian economic sociology, which primarily has its origin in his theoretical discussions. We also show that Pareto conducted empirical studies drawing from his version of economic sociology. Included is finally a presentation, as well as a discussion of Pareto's idea of rentiers and speculators, which is followed up by a more general discussion of economic types in the market.     

Feeling poor,acting stingy: the effect of money perceptions on charitable giving

In research on philanthropy, much attention has been given to the impact of the actual economic costs of giving. This paper argues that the perceived psychological costs of giving should also be taken into consideration when seeking to understand donations to charitable organizations. It is already known that people differ in their attitudes towards money, and that money attitudes are mostly independent from income, but these findings have been largely overlooked in the study of philanthropy and altruism. This paper seeks to rectify that omission by investigating the relationship between charitable giving and money perceptions. The analyses show that, regardless of the actual financial resources held by a donor, the size of their donations is negatively affected by feelings of retention (a careful approach to money) and inadequacy (people who worry about their financial situation). We conclude that an understanding of money perceptions is an additional important factor in the understanding of charitable behaviour. Fundraising professionals should not only select potential donors based on their absolute financial capacities but also take the potential donor's own financial perceptions into account when asking for donations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ADAM SMITH: REVOLUTIONARY FOR THE THIRD MILLENNIUM?1

Adam Smith challenged the then prevailing belief in mercantilist control. He presented a picture of an ‘… orderly yet self‐adjusting, dynamic economic system in which rising production, employment, investment and trade were linked spontaneously together by voluntary exchange …’ Present‐day governments and anti‐globalisation protesters could learn a great deal from his writings.     

On the Analytics of Wicksell: A Comment on Abiakpor

Three essential concepts of Wicksell's contributions are probed. (1) Wicksell's commingling of a barter economy with a money economy led to a logical pitfall in his cumulative-process paradigm. (2) Wicksell sought to deduce a cumulative process involving price-level movements from an economy without money and, therefore, without a general price level. (3) Wicksell's idealized pure credit system can be logically reconciled with his law of the demand for money creating its own supply.     

The Free Trade Philosophy of Sir George Paish

Sir George Paish (1867–1957) was a British economist whose unique position as a journalist, political advisor, and international traveler gave him access to significant world events and leaders. Paish wrote for and edited the financial magazine The Statist and earned recognition as an expert on British and American railways. He lectured and wrote on economics and international finance throughout his adult life and advised David Lloyd George on economic subjects between 1909–1915. Paish's written works provide insight to early 20^th-century economic affairs through the lens of his liberal, free trade philosophy. This article examines many of Paish's most relevant reflections on free trade, following the chronology of his life.     

Unity in the Social Thought of Adolph Lowe: A Review of "Essays in Political Economics: Public Control in a Democratic Society"

Abstract . From the economist Adolph Lowe's voluminous-writings, Allen Oakleyh has selected eight essays which present the gist of Lowe's thought. It unifies his structural analyses and his instrumental analyses into the system Lowe calls “Political Economics.” This pre-orders desired ends or effects and then determines or applies goal-adequate means to achieve these ends. Lowe's Essays in Political Economics sketches the economic paradigm by which he expands the evolutionary way of thinking from the subject —economic behavior— to the object, the socioeconomic world. He argues that instability is fundamental, basic and inherent in contemporary industrial capitalism as it has evolved physically, technologically and socially and stability can be restored by an approach which reverses the continuum to end-means. He holds that if the world evolves, and it does, so must the goal-adequate methods and instrumentalities to deal with it.     

Ladislaus von Bortkiewicz—Statistician,Economist and a European Intellectual

Ladislaus von Bortkiewicz (1868–1931) was a European statistician. His scientific work covered theoretical economics, stochastics, mathematical statistics and radiology; today, we would call him a cross‐disciplinary scientist. With his clear views on mathematical principles with their applications in these fields, he stood in conflict with the mainstream economic schools in Germany at the dawn of the 20th century. He had many prominent students (Gumbel, Leontief and Freudenberg among them), and he carved out the path of modern statistical thinking. He was a true European intellectual with a career path from St. Petersburg via Göttingen to Straßburg and finally the Berliner Universität, now Humboldt‐Universität zu Berlin. He is known for the precise calibration of insurance claims applying the—at that time hardly known—Poisson distribution to Prussian horse kick and child suicide data. He proposed a simple solution to the Marxian transformation problem and wrote numerous articles and books on the mathematical treatment of statistical (including radiological physical) data. In this article, we sketch his life and work and point out the prominent role that he has in today's statistical thinking.     

John A. Hobson: Economic Heretic

Abstract . John A. Hobson was a self-styled economic heretic who developed and original and remarkably comprehensive system of economic and social thought. This system is based on certain distinctively Hobsonian concepts and theories. Hobson's economic heresies were based on his theory of distribution in which he rejected orthodox marginal productivity theory and developed a theory of economic surplus the distribution of which is determined by economic power. This underlay his theory of under-consumption which in turn was used to explain and analyze economic and social issues such as unemployment, the business cycle, the labor movement, imperialism and taxation. Hobson was also critical of the whole methodology of economic science on the grounds that it abstracted from human welfare in its widest sense. He argued that proper values should be introduced into the study of economic activity so that it could assist in the attainment of the best conditions of human life, both social and individual.