Published November 10, 2010
The most important element of economic theory has been ignored for more than two centuries, and its rediscovery has started a revolution the likes of which occurred just three times in eight centuries. That’s the thesis of Redeeming Economics: Rediscovering the Missing Element (ISI Books, 2010), by John D. Mueller, director of EPPC’s Economics and Ethics Program and president of LBMC LLC. Since the great Adam Smith tried to reduce human behavior to mere exchanges, modern economists have lost sight of how our fundamental motivations of love (or hate) are expressed: as gifts (or their opposite, crimes). Mueller shows how reapplying the economic thought of Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas makes economics whole again. Contrarian and compelling, Redeeming Economics covers everything from the cause of the Great Recession of 2007-09, to the economics of parenthood, to flaws in the mega-bestseller Freakonomics, to the author’s illuminating exchange with the controversial philosopher Peter Singer, to the formula for presidential economic success.
Read Jennifer Roback Morse’s review published in Family in America.
Praise for Redeeming Economics:
“For years I’ve watched John Mueller combine markets with morality to help fix what’s broken. Both Washington and Wall Street sorely need Redeeming Economics.”
-LARRY KUDLOW, host of CNBC’s Kudlow and Company
“Bold, interesting, and thought-provoking . . . a book that could fundamentally reground the discipline of economics and reorient the study of political economy.”
-WILLIAM KRISTOL, editor of the Weekly Standard
Buy the book at amazon.com.
