A Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 18 “Conclusion: Still Spinning After All These Years” I have really enjoyed this book because Foster is asking the questions I have had. Why do we bite the Invisible Hand? Why are people not more aware or concerned that…
Tag: Assumptions
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
The Deep, Dark Roots of Politics: Using Others to Help Ourselves
A Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 13 “The Chimpanzee in the Room: Darwinian Politics” In an earlier chapter, Foster has discussed the origins of the instinct to trade. While trading seems natural to people, the disconnected and abstract modern economic system today challenges our…
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
Economic Statistics Boost the Illusion of Control
Part 3 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 12 “Homer Economicus” Foster asserts that anti-capitalists have long feared that people’s desire to raise their standard of living would devolve into envy-driven conspicuous consumption that would trump virtue. (p. 264) Related to this criticism…
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
Do We Want the Government Nudging Us?
Part 2 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 12 “Homer Economicus” In the last blog, we explored Foster’s critique of behavioral economics, and now we will see how its incorrect diagnosis of the problems in economics has led to conclusions for more economic…
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
Behavioral Economics: Correcting a Problem Economics Does Not Have
Part 1 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 12 “Homer Economicus” Foster turns his attention to the field of Behavioral Economics that gained a lot of attention in the early 2000’s. However, it is clear Foster is unimpressed. Two psychologists kicked the field…
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
Sociobiology’s Unity Blinded Its Progress
Part 1 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 11 “The Darwin Wars” Foster turns this chapter to an examination of the field of sociobiology, where evolutionary biology meets psychology, hoping to find answers to why we carry anti-capitalist views instinctively. Seeking the source…
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
Keynesianism: Regulating the Free Market to Death
Part 3 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 10 “The Rise and Fall and Rise of John Maynard Keynes” Just as the bad economy of the 1970s precipitated the end of Keynesianism and the rise of neoclassical economics, the 2008 financial crisis, the…
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
The Problems We Cause Ourselves from Few Seeing the Invisible Hand
Part 1 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 9 “The Invisible Metaphor” Foster dives deeper in this chapter into the significance of the Invisible Hand metaphor credited to Adam Smith. In this blog, we will concentrate on what is meant by the Invisible Hand, and…
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
The Need to Unlearn What We “Know” about Economics
Part 2 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 8 “Do-It-Yourself Economics” Foster continues in this chapter exploring some of the apparently inborn assumptions we apply to the economy that lead to incorrect conclusions. Much like the do-it-yourself-economics (DIYE) brought up in the previous…
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
Are We Born to Not Understand Economics?
Part 1 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 8 “Do-It-Yourself Economics” Foster dives deep into the assumptions he says we carry around unknowingly that cause us to make erroneous judgements about business and economics. He cites work by Steven Pinker in the field of conceptual…