Part 2 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 3 “Fears of a Clown: The Golden Arch-Enemy” In the previous blog, Foster showed us how many difficulties McDonald’s faced trying to run a restaurant in Moscow upon making a deal in 1988 when it was still…
Tag: Capitalism
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
McDonald’s Goes to Moscow
Part 1 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 3 “Fears of a Clown: The Golden Arch-Enemy” Foster turns his attention to a major U.S. company, McDonald’s, that he notes has long been a target of derision from American elites. McDonald’s had long been the Golden…
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
Adam Smith Would Be Surprised to Learn People Think He Supports Greed
Part 1 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 2 “The Sage of Kirkcaldy” In this chapter, Peter Foster follows Adam Smith through the years as he developed his ideas that were enshrined in his two books, The Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759 and The Wealth of Nations in…
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
Capitalism Needs a PR Team
Part 2 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 1 “Cardboard Cut-out Capitalism” Peter Foster notes in his book that capitalism is a word everyone uses, often with negative connotations, but seldom define. (p. 24) Defining capitalism is one of the key sticking points for authors…
Why We Bite the Invisible Hand
Why is Our Culture Hostile to Capitalism?
Part 1 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 1 “Cardboard Cut-out Capitalism” The title of journalist Peter Foster’s book definitely captured my attention: Why We Bite the Invisible Hand. The invisible hand is a metaphor from Adam Smith that we use in economics to describe how the economy…
1913
The Next Turning Point
A Discussion of Oliver DeMille’s 1913 Chapter 13 “The Last Turning Point” As Oliver DeMille concludes his book, he titles his last chapter, “The Last Turning Point,” which I find bleak, though perhaps that was not the intention. I prefer the idea of the next turning point. He opened his…
Bourgeois Equality
Both the Right and the Left Oppose the Bourgeois
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 65 “Despite the Clerisy’s Doubts” Dr. McCloskey continues her discussion of the threats to a continuation of the bourgeois trade tested system of betterment that has given us a 3000% to 10,000% growth in incomes over the past two hundred years. In this chapter…
Bourgeois Equality
The Entanglement of Polanyi’s Embeddedness
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 58 “Yet Polanyi was Right about Embeddedness” Last chapter, Dr. McCloskey argued Karl Polanyi was wrong about his central point that capitalism rising in the 1800s was the first time markets had dominant influence on society. This chapter, she is agreeing with a secondary…
Bourgeois Equality
Good Institutions are not Enough — You Still Need Good Ideas
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 14 “Because Ethics Matters, and Changes, More” I’ll be honest. If the first few chapters read like this one, I never would have thought to do this chapter by chapter review! That is not because this chapter is bad, but it did challenge me….
Bourgeois Equality
The Right’s Story of Economic Growth is Wrong, Too
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 13 “But Neither Can Poverty Be Overcome from the Right by Implanting Institutions” OK, now McCloskey is coming for me! The textbook I use for my intro macroeconomics class has a chapter on the source of economic growth, and the quality of the institutions is one…