Best writings on economics?

[joshrp]

Hi,

What are the best writings on economics that are consistent with Catholic teaching? Are there any real Catholic economists? Most of the things that mainstream economists say is just delusional, and I am wondering if there are any actually competent economists of a Catholic bent? I have studied a lot of economics, but most of the modern thinkers in economics are just ignorant of people like Alexander Hamilton and Henry C. Carey, who are a couple of the most important figured in American economic history. Alexander Hamilton was George Washington’s main economic advisor and Carey was Abraham Lincoln’s chief economist. How many modern economists have actually studied and understand their writings and policies? I get the sense that most people who talk about economics today are literally insane, preaching magic and sorcery almost. Does anyone know any really good Catholic economic thinkers. I have heard of some but I can’t remember their names right now. Maybe if some of you can give me some names I can start doing some library research and such.

 

[Catholic90]

My son has read Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments and the entire The Wealth of Nations. All for one economics class.

Stephen Levitt’s books are pretty good as well - Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics.

 

[Rascalking]

FA Hayek “The Road to Serfdom” Milton Friedman “Free to Choose”. The above Adam Smith books are also quite good.

 

[edward_george]

Check out some of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclicals, especially Rerum Novarum. His work is the foundation of our modern Catholic social teaching, and his economic theory is quite sound. He seems to anticipate a lot of the problems of our current time in Rerum and a number of his other political writings.

papalencyclicals.net/Leo13/index.htm

-ACEGC

 

[JohnAlexander]

That someone would ask such a question shows that they dont know what economics means. That shouldnt be taken as an insult. Half of the professional economists in the US dont know what economics means. They have an agenda and twist the facts and try to force their will on everyone else.

I would recommend Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. Then any other books by him.

 

[George_Stegmeir]

I would suggest starting by reading “The Worldly Philosophers” by Robert L. Heilbroner.
The book consists of a series of biographical essays about each of the Classic Economists and an explanation of their theories. It is a short cut to understanding modern economic theory.
BTW if I were Czar, I would mandate the Economics be a required course of study in every US Highschool because the American public is woefully ignorant of a subject that is important to our freedom.

 

[Bohm_Bawerk]

My son has read Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments and the entire The Wealth of Nations. All for one economics class.

Are you sure he has read the entire The Wealth of Nations, because even only very few economists only read Book I (division of labour/specialization/labour theory of value/etc) and neglect the rest because it is written in very archaic English. I’m not sure how old your son is, but that seems very awkward to read such a massive book and I’m very skeptical, please forgive me.

As for the OP (joshrp), if you are looking for an economist with a “Catholic bent” then you aren’t looking for an economist but a politician/ideologue. Most economists today try their best (although some fail) to divorce their personal beliefs from their economic findings. This is because most economists try and adhere to the scientific method and base their findings on empirical data. This explains why certain economic school of thoughts such as the Austrian school are considered “heterodox” because their economic philosophy is based on a priori logic rather than a posteriori logic.

To answer why economists don’t read Hamilton, et. al, Greg Mankiw’s answer is probably useful. He was asked why mainstream economists overlook Austrian economics and this is what he posted on his blog:

First, most economists at research universities focus their attention on recent work. Things written more than twenty or thirty years ago are usually assumed to be irrelevant, out-dated, or incorporated into more recent work. We rarely focus on something like the Mises book (written in 1949) for the same reason that physicists don’t read Newton in the original

This can explain why mainstream economists overlook Hamilton, et. al.

If you are looking for “real” economists rather than ideologues, from the top of my head I can give a few contemporaries: Mankiw, Bernanke, Stiglitz, Romer, Barro, Krugman, Chang, Sen, etc (I’ve forgotten a few). The slightly older economists are definitely worth glancing at as they have had a huge impact on the field of economics: Keynes, Friedman, Marshall and Schumpeter. The “oldies” would be Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Baptiste-Say and Malthus, but as Mankiw alluded to, current economists don’t bother reading them as their economic findings can be outdated (e.g. Smith’s labour-theory of value was razed by the later Marginalist movement).

 

[Ridgerunner]

I would not disagree with any of the posters on their recommendations.

However, I would definitely recommend “Redeeming Economics” by John Mueller, for a very Catholic point of view. In his book, he reviews the theories of most of the economists named in the foregoing posts, critiques many, condemns some, approves some.

Fundamentally, his thesis is that virtually all economists’ theories are flawed at least in part, because they do not consider an important aspect, which is the distributive function. He draws on St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas’ writings to develop this in addition to the writings of secular economists.

I found it very enlightening. It is highly readable even if one is not a “tech” type, well-schooled in economic theory and statistics. The figures and stats and studies and calculations are there. It is very heavily footnoted. But even if you have trouble with some of those things, you can still read the book and get the important points.

There is some really surprising information in the book, well worth knowing. I particularly enjoyed reading about an economists’ conundrum referred to as “The Mother’s Dilemma”; something no mainstream economic approach can really solve.

My grown children are all begging for my copy, so I bought each of them one for Christmas.