On Samuelson... And Catallactics

Paul A Samuelson died yesterday, at the age of 94. Here is the NYT detailed obituary (via Aristotle The Geek). Pity Bastiat died at 50; and Bruno Leoni at 56.

Samuelson wrote the world’s greatest selling Economics textbook. And he famously said: “I don’t care who rules a nation — as long as I write its economics textbook.”

I was one of those young students who had to perforce buy Samuelson’s technicolour textbook in 1974, when I enrolled in a bachelor’s degree course in Economics from Delhi University. I am sure many students are doing the same now, cracking their heads over this confused "prescribed text."

And I daresay that I did not like the book much. I found it all too confusing, too much colour and jazz, too little conceptual clarity. What it does is inflict the students’ minds with a heady dose of étatism: The State is required to “correct” for market imperfections, as in the case of “public goods,” and, more importantly, in the case of swings in the “business cycle.” Samuelson attempted to make Keynesianism the world’s only Economics, adding a false mathematical rigour to his analyses that made them appear more “scientific.”

Yet, I wonder how long Samuelson’s legacy – Keynesianism, mathematics, market failure – will last. His most famous students, like Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, both Nobel laureates, fail to inspire much confidence. There is the “public choice” school with its exposition of “government failure” that deserves the attention of students and the public alike. And then there are the Austrians – with their unique epistemology, and their deep understanding of individual human action in markets. Austrians also have a clear conception of money, something Keynesians lost all sight of. And sound money is the hottest subject of today.

I am therefore of the opinion that we need a new textbook in Economics, one based on Austrian methodology and analyses. There are many worthies who are capable of writing such an elementary textbook, and I am trying to pen such a Principles of Catallactics myself.

If any publisher is interested in this work, or my other unpublished works, do get in touch.