Others

YOU ARE OUR VISITOR

QUOTES FROM THE OTHER MAJOR ECONOMISTS

It would be impossible to try and categorise the works of all the major economic thinkers over the past 300 years in the context of a single web site. What we have tried to do is set out what we felt the major economic thinkers over time were, and what their core ideologies were about.

Apologies are made in advance if we have not included an economist you feel deserves to be in this section.

What we have done in the following section is to present quotes from the other major economic thinkers in recent times:

JOSEPH A. SCHUMPETER (1942) ON CAPITALISM - 'is by nature a form or method of economic change and not only is but never can be stationery'

V.WALSH & H.GRAM (1980) ON CAPITALISM & THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL - 'Classical theory is a theory of reproduction in which the dynamic concept of viability is central and where the fundamental problem is to show how the social relations of production under capitalism determine the nature of the process of extraction, accumulation and consumption of the surplus product.'

R.V EAGLY (1974) ON CAPITALISM - 'Capital was not only the dominant theoretical construct of classical theory; it was also the key for achieving the major policy objective of classical economics, namely economic growth. In terms of classical analysis, output is a function of capital ... accordingly capital and growth are inextricably intertwined.'

W.J BAUMOL (1970) ON THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS - 'By the classical economists, we shall here mean those writers on economic theory who worked largely in England during and after the time of Malthus and before the time of John Stuart Mill, among the most famous of whom were Ricardo, James Mill'

SIR JOHN HICKS (1976) ON ALFRED MARSHALL - 'Marshall's consumer who decides on his purchase by comparing the marginal utility of what is to be bought with the marginal utility of the money he will have to pay for is more like an actual consumer'

FRIEDRICH AUGUST VON HAYEK (1967) ON TRADE - 'Most people engage in trade in order to earn an income ... they prefer a larger income to a smaller one'

ROBERT TORRENS (1832) ON THE PLIGHT OF THE WORKING CLASSES & THE STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY - 'The labouring classes compose the great bulk of any community: and a country is happy or miserable, as they are well or ill supplied with the necessaries, comforts and enjoyments of life. The study of political economy, if it did not teach the way in which labour may obtain an adequate reward, might serve to gratify a merely speculative curiosity, but could scarcely conduce to any purposes of practical utility.'

T.E CLIFFE (1879) ON POLITICAL ECONOMY - 'Political economy is not a body of natural laws in the true sense or of universal and immutable truths, but and assemblage of speculations and doctrines which are the result of a particular history.'

OSKAR LANGE (1963) ON POLITICAL ECONOMY - 'Political economy, or social economy, is the study of the social laws governing the production and distribution of the material means of satisfying human needs.'

MICHAEL P TORRADO (1989) ON POLITICAL ECONOMY - 'Political economy ... the attempt to merge economic analysis with practical politics ... ie, to view economic activity in its political context. Much of 'classical' economics was political economy and today 'political economy' is increasingly recognised as necessary for any realistic examination of development problems.'

MILTON FRIEDMAN (1953) ON THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT ECONOMIC THEORIES - 'I would venture the judgment ... differences about economic policy among disinterested citizens derive predominantly from different predictions about the economic consequences of taking action ... differences that in principle can be eliminated by the progress of positive economics ... rather than from fundamental differences in basic values'

LIONEL ROBBINS (1971) ON ECONOMISTS - 'We devise theories to explain the world and we test them by asking whether they perform this function in specific circumstances'

WASSILY LEONTIEF (1978) ON GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMIC POLICY - 'According to prevalent academic doctrine a proper combination of fiscal and monetary policies should be capable of securing steady economic growth ... Practical experience with the application of this approach has proved disappointing. Neither the Keynesian nor the so-called monetarist prescription seems to work'

LIONEL ROBBINS (1971) ON ECONOMIC THEORIES - 'As economic theory becomes more advanced and more complicated, the need for testing becomes more and more imperative'

HENRYK GROSSMAN (1992) ON MARX AND THE BREAKDOWN OF THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM (THE LAW OF ACCUMULATED BREAKDOWN) - 'We know that in Marx's conception crises are simply a healing process of the system, a form in which equilibrium is again re-established, even if forcibly and with huge losses. From the standpoint of capital every crisis is a 'crisis of purification'. Soon the accumulation process picks up and on a expanded basis and within certain limits, it can proceed without any distribution of equilibrium ... Despite the periodic interruptions that repeatedly defuse the tendency towards breakdown, the mechanism as a whole tends relentlessly towards its final end with the general process of accumulation. As the accumulation of capital grows absolutely, the valorisation of this expanded capital becomes progressively more difficult. Once these countertendencies are themselves defused or simply cease to operate, the breakdown tendency gains the upper hand and asserts itself in the absolute form as the final crisis'

IF YOU FEEL THAT WE HAVE MISSED ANY OF THE LEADING ECONOMIC THINKERS IN THIS SECTION, PLEASE CONTACT US AND LET US KNOW. SEND E-MAILS TO: [email protected]

Back To Economics Through Time Main Menu