Wednesday, May 24, 2006

An unwittingly revealing read

David Warsh's Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations has received a lot of favorable comment -- as it should. It is beautifully and clearly written. Who would have thought that the history of economic thought could be a fun read?

The Economist of May 20 includes a very useful review ("The growth of growth theory"). Yet, the book and its story are poignant for Austrian economists, whose contributions are hardly acknowledged. The question that goes unasked is: What has the neo-classicists' journey of discovery, as sketched by Warsh, contributed that is worthy beyond the Austrians' long-held focus on entrepreneurial discovery?