Manichism
The Manichaean character of economics. Charles Kindleberger. Abstract: Economics is said to have adopted a certain degree of dualism. None of its tenets have been absolute in terms of social effectivity. To survive in an economic system, rules must be enforced to ensure the peace. There are times when pluralism is good for a society as a way recognizing social differences. However, there are times, such as war, when the rule of a central authority is preferred. Laws in economics are hardly permanent since such regulations are enacted and enforced only when the need Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1999 M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Are there any absolute answers in economics? This international trade economist and economic historian has his doubts. The answer to most questions is "It depends." Manichaeus, as we all know from the Oxford dictionary; was a Persian philosopher of the third century A.D., whose system he
Centralization versus pluralism can be disposed of in two sentences, though I have a book of 100 pages on the issue: In quiet times, pluralism is better because it is more democratic. Let me illustrate this deeply philosophical or perhaps cowardly position with a few examples drawn from history. Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, Monetary Policy, Commercial Distress (1857), (Shannon: Irish University Press, 1969), vol. Gresham's law will work in reverse, good money driving out bad, as allegedly happened in Scotland between the failure of the Ayr Bank in 1772 and the Bank Act of 1845, when Scottish banks were brought under British legislation. ld some sway throughout the Roman empire and Asia until the fifth century (with some elements lasting to the thirteenth). The law, as I understand it, has an excuse for breaking a contract or rule: force majeure, a major change of circumstances beyond the control of one side to the contract or the ruled body. In the end, the Reichsbank could not keep printing the currency fast enough and the real money supply declined. It is not clear to me on which side of this issue to find Heilbroner, but I suspect it would be a rather looser version of men than I would support, though I allow for men far more than many economists and economic historians. One could go on. The forces of the enemy being variable, those of the defense cannot always be the same. In 1931 Keynes recommended tariffs, others devaluation or depreciation.
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Franklin National,
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War II,
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Acceptance Essays
