The Wealth of Nature

Rating:
Summary: Interesting exposition on the central themes in economics
Review: Nadeau's thesis is that much of the mathematical basis of economics is essentially fallacious, or rather that its association with 19th century physics is a weak point, not only because the variables in the equations were arbitrarily related to the physics of the era, but also because 19th century physics is of course no longer accepted as the way the universe really is, having been replaced with relativity and quantum mechanics. He also shows that Adam Smith's original ideas were subjective in that he fitted his "the universe is a piece of clockwork machinery" ideas into a theory that had no necessary connection with reality. I found this all really interesting. The result is that we have no particular reason to accept what economists routinely tell us about the planet and "how the world works". Their model may work when they pick the parameters to be measured, but when we have other parameters it fails. The environment is a case in point. Nadeau says that is not surprising that neoclassical economics is not a lot of use in "saving our environment". He suggests some ways that people can attempt to get a more meaningful way of accounting for the environment, but this part is necessarily less interesting in some ways than the earlier critique, if only because the author does not have "the answer". But then who does? Anyone interested in the environment and economics can read this book with profit. It is not a technical read, it is definitely for an interested layperson, and it does have something solid to say and something that, I for one, did not know before reading it.