Robert L. Heilbroner

Reflecting on the end of communism, the author of the best-selling The Worldly Philosophers examines the many faces of capitalism, looking for the aspects of a market economy that will be most capable of succeeding against today's toughest dilemmas.

In this intriguing volume, Robert Heilbroner delves into the actual writings of the economists who stride through the pages of his classic work The Worldly Philosophers. In his own words, Heilbroner serves as docent to the master works that he has culled from the history of economic thought. In that role, he takes the reader through the core arguments of works often referred to, but seldom read other than by scholars. The works introduced here range from the earliest economic thought found in the Bible and Aquinas to such towering volumes as Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population, and David Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy, to John Maynard Keynes' The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Under expert guidance, the reader discovers that the sturdiest principles of economics reside not in mathematical equations but in wide-ranging and stimulating appraisals of the behavior of individuals within their social contexts and society.

Heilbroner calls the first view that of the Distant Past - the immense span that begins with the Stone Age, moves through the great early civilizations of the Near East to the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome, and ends only with the advent of modern times in the eighteenth century. Heilbroner makes the bold assertion that through all this vast panorama a single phrase depicts humanity's expectations of life on earth: it will be like the past. As he asks, what reason was there for expecting anything else? Change comes with the second, much shorter period, from the 1700s to the mid 1950s. Heilbroner calls it Yesterday. Now three immense forces, unknown in the Distant Past, dominate the expectations of the West. One of these is science, with its promise of controlling nature. A second is the advent of a dynamic means of organizing production called capitalism. And a third is the appearance of the revolutionary idea that the people themselves were the master of their destinies. Together these three forces imbue Yesterday's view of the future with an idea utterly unknown in the Distant Past: the expectation that the future will be better than the present. The third view is that of Today. Heilbroner points out that our own view of the future is still linked to science, capitalism, and democracy. What is new is that these powerful forces no longer appear as unambiguous carriers of progress. We look to science with fears as well as hopes; capitalism on a global scale brings economic difficulties along with new horizons; the expression of mass political sentiments conjures up the nightmares of Yugoslavia and Africa as well as possibilities for a widening of democratic government.

A deep and widespread crisis affects modern economic theory, a crisis that derives from the absence of a "vision" - a set of widely shared political and social preconceptions - on which all economics ultimately depends. This absence, in turn, reflects the collapse of the Keynesian view that provided such a foundation from 1940 through the early 1970s, comparable to earlier visions provided by Smith, Ricardo, Mill, and Marshall. The "unraveling" of Keynesianism has been followed by a division of discordant and ineffective camps whose common denominator seems to be their shared analytical refinement and lack of practical applicability. Heilbroner and Milberg's analysis attempts both to describe this state of affairs and to suggest the direction in which economic thinking must move if it is to regain the relevance and remedial power it now pointedly lacks.

Explains the nature of economic forces and defines economic terms.

FOREWORD The purpose of this book is to present the main themes of macroeconomics as simply and lucidly as possible, not only so that its readers can pass their exams but in the more ambitious hope that long after these exams have faded into oblivion, something of the central ideas and conclusions of contemporary economics will remain. The problem in a book of this kind is not just how to present the material, but where to draw the line-a matter than cannot, I fear, be resolved to everyone's satisfaction. The instructor who has spent years acquiring the knowledge of the subtleties and complexities of economic relationships is sure to feel that much has been left out. The student who has a semester or two to absorb all the formal economic instruction he is likely to receive in his life is apt to feel just the opposite. By way of apology to both, I can only say that I thought hard I have drawn the line, emphasizing and highlighting prominently certain basic processes of great conceptual and practical importance and minimizing side issues of secondary interest. A question whose answer we are eager to learn, both my readers and myself, is whether I will help to achieve success in their exams or if I can leave an "enduring" knowledge of economics. In carrying out this work a lot more people have helped me whom I want to thank their efforts. PROLOGO Este libro tiene por objeto presentar los temas principales de la macroeconomía tan sencilla y claramente como sea posible, no sólo para que sus lectores-estudiantes puedan aprobar sus exámenes, sino con la esperanza más ambiciosa de que, mucho tiempo después de que el recuerdo de tales pruebas se haya relegado al olvido, quede en su memoria algo de las ideas y conclusiones fundamentales de la economía contemporánea. En un texto de esta naturaleza, el problema no estriba únicamente en la forma de presentar el material, sino hasta dónde se puede llegar, cosa que, me temo, no es posible resolver a satisfacción de todo el mundo. El maestro, que ha dedicado varios años a adquirir el conocimiento de las sutilezas y complejidades de las relaciones económicas, es indudable que opinará que se ha omitido demasiado. El estudiante, que sólo cuenta con uno o dos semestres para asimilar toda la enseñanza económica formal que probablemente reciba en su vida, es posible que estime todo lo contrario. A guisa de disculpa para ambos, solamente puedo decir que he reflexionado mucho sobre las limitaciones que he dado a este trabajo, enfatizando y haciendo destacar prominentemente ciertos procesos básicos de gran importancia conceptual y práctica y reduciendo al mínimo los aspectos colaterales de interés secundario. Una interrogación, cuya respuesta estamos ansiosos por saber tanto mis lectores como yo, es si ahora lograré ayudarlos en sus exámenes o si podré transmitirles un conocimiento "perdurable" de la economía. En la ejecución de este trabajo me han ayudado muchísimo varias personas a quienes deseo agradecer sus esfuerzos. A Hans Neisser, miembro de la Facultad de Postgraduados de la Nueva Escuela de Investigaciones Sociales, cuyos atinados comentarios críticos dieron fuerza substancial al manuscrito, me complace dedicarle este libro como muestra de gratitud por su colaboración actual y la que me ha brindado en ocasiones anteriores, así como en pago parcial de una deuda permanente de reconocimiento del estudiante al maestro y del colega al amigo. - El Autor

"What lies behind the veil of economics? Power and ideology, answers Robert Heilbroner—the power of our economic involvement in society to shape the ways we think about it; the visions and values that add unsuspected ideological color to our economic beliefs about it. Most important, Heilbroner shows why economics has become the reigning form of social inquiry and how we might penetrate its mystique."--Publisher.

"These essays help us locate ourselves in history. As readers of The Worldly Philosophers or The Future as History or The Limits of American Capitalism know, Robert L. Heilbroner is an economist who uses his craft to elucidate the problems of large-scale historical transformation that affect our times. In these essays that on-going examination is pursued further as Heilbroner explores these forces that impinge on our present position "between capitalism and socialism".--Back cover.