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The End of Economics

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most political and business leaders are keenly aware that market forces, without any outside guidance, can and often will produce catastrophic results. As a result, they are unwilling to trust the fate of society, or even business itself, to market processes alone. — location: 119 ^ref-12136

Many of the ills of our society are the logical result of leaving our fate to the workings of markets. — location: 144 ^ref-53861

in a modern economy, where fixed costs predominate, pure market economics just will not work. — location: 157 ^ref-39840

most modern economists lack the business leaders’ practical understanding of the destructive nature of pure competition or the theoretical insights of the railroad economists. — location: 161 ^ref-57988

an airline commits an enormous investment in an industry where the cost of servicing another customer is minimal. — location: 169 ^ref-38845

beginning in the late nineteenth century, conservative leaders from government, business and academia rejected market principles because of the instability that competition engenders. — location: 184 ^ref-19104

good number of prominent economists, including some of the most vigorous defenders of capitalism, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries came to the conclusion that markets were incapable of determining the appropriate level of investment. — location: 217 ^ref-26220

if pure capitalism did exist, it would be inappropriate for a modern economy. Pure capitalism might be capable of organizing an economy of village artisans working with primitive tools, but it could never work in an economy built around sophisticated, modern technologies. — location: 225 ^ref-59031

economics, I am looking forward to the day when we no longer rely on competition for monetary rewards to guide our affairs. — location: 3482 ^ref-28783

Modern economists suffer under the delusion that competition is an unmitigated good for society. They fail to recognize that competition creates all serious threat to society. — location: 3490 ^ref-27990

We cannot rationally credit the accomplishments of the market for the most recent round of enthusiasm for laissez faire. Instead, we should see it as a natural outgrowth of disillusionment and disappointment that came with the end of the Golden Age. If governments cannot deliver the continual prosperity that people expected, well, maybe market forces can. — location: 3523 ^ref-8711

The future will belong to producers who learn to cooperate rather than compete. The more information becomes public, the better society can take advantage of the new technologies. Where competitive forces are absent, people will no longer have an incentive to keep technical information private. — location: 3540 ^ref-7940

when we look around us we have to admit we could do far better with what we have. Why should the vast majority of the world’s population be reduced to squalor? Why should we squander massive amounts of wealth on armaments, which are all too often brutally used? Why should we continue to wantonly ravage the environment? — location: 3546 ^ref-59180