Development of Economic Analysis

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Summary: Rima needs to read Keynes's GT,especially chapter 20
Review: There are just too many errors ,of interpretation,omission and commission,in this book to justify purchasing it.In this review we will concentrate on Rima's(R)handling of the work of J M Keynes.On p.84,R's claim that the Physiocratic concept of hoarding is "surprisingly suggestive" of J M Keynes's idea has no supporting evidence to back it up.On p.133,R claims that Malthus had developed a principle of effective demand,a la Keynes.What Malthus expressed was an uneasy feeling and/or intuition that Ricardo's deductive,analytical system of market self adjustment to a global optimum was overlooking(or assuming away)the possibility of insufficient aggregate spending.Nowhere does Malthus ever systematically present a theoretical counter to Ricardo.What Malthus does is express some reservations in an exchange of postal letters with Ricardo.In chapter 20 of R's book, she attempts to deal with Keynes's theory of effective demand and Keynes's discussion of involuntary unemployment which follows directly from his theory.Keynes worked out the mathematical details in his chapter 20,titled "The Employment Function".R should have simply reprinted that chapter in her book,replacing her chapter 20 with Keynes's chapter 20.R's Figure 20.1,discussed on pages451-454,directly contradicts Keynes's analysis.

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Summary: A Translucent Account of a Simple History
Review: Economic history is studied based on concepts such as Merchantilism, Physiocracy, Classism, Marxism, Keynesianism, and so on. There are important people involved in this conceptual framework, such as Petty, Quesney, Smith, Marx, Keynes, and so on. Rima manages to take this simple history and create something far more complicated than necessary, and at times, incoherently pedantic. For example, Rima tries to explain derivation of a demand curve AND Hick's optimum conditions in 13 pages. Get real! Rather than issue a prolegomenon (Rima's word, page 202), I will make a suggestion: if this book is required reading for a college course, throw it away, and purchase Stanley L. Brue's excellent, coherent, and well-edited book, 'The Evolution of Economic Thought' (sixth edition). Brue's book is pricey, but you will actually learn something useful and interesting, and you might get from Quesnay to Keynes in 10 weeks without killing yourself!