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New Review of My Book

Summary:
A nice review of my book by Marc Morgan has appeared in American Affairs. Morgan works with Thomas Piketty at the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics. He is doing interesting work on profit accounting and determination. I would also note that Morgan attended the same secondary school (high school) as me in Dublin. Apparently, Christian Brothers College, Monkstown — although not a very prominent school in any meaningful sense — is creating a lot of heterodox economists. Or, perhaps, the children of my generation found the free market nostrums they were handed by the pre-2008 politicians so nauseating that they decided to critically study economics. Who knows? Morgan’s review is excellent and although I could pick over details, I won’t bother. I will note one thing,

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A nice review of my book by Marc Morgan has appeared in American Affairs. Morgan works with Thomas Piketty at the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics. He is doing interesting work on profit accounting and determination.

I would also note that Morgan attended the same secondary school (high school) as me in Dublin. Apparently, Christian Brothers College, Monkstown — although not a very prominent school in any meaningful sense — is creating a lot of heterodox economists. Or, perhaps, the children of my generation found the free market nostrums they were handed by the pre-2008 politicians so nauseating that they decided to critically study economics. Who knows?

Morgan’s review is excellent and although I could pick over details, I won’t bother. I will note one thing, however. Morgan’s review is extremely extensive but, when it comes to the theoretical architecture I lay out in the book, seems to focus heavily on profits and distribution. This probably reflects Morgan’s own research priorities and there is nothing wrong with that.

That said, however, I thought that this section of the book — while important — was almost wholly derivative and widely known by people well read in heterodox and especially Kaleckian economics. Perhaps my explanation was more lucid — I should be happy if it were — but it was not any more original.

The section of the book on finance and investment, on the other hand, I thought was the most original part of the theoretical section of the book. While there is a case to be made that the theory of finance is not wholly original, resting as it does on modern finance theory, Keynes’ theory and GLS Shackle’s theory, I nevertheless think that it is an oirginal synthesis.

In spite of this, no one has yet assessed it in any detail.

Anyway, the review is fantastic and I recommend it to all.

The Reformation in Economics: Back to the Future

Philip Pilkington
Phillip Pilkington works in investment and has contributed to numerous online and print media outlets as a freelance economic journalist.

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