Reddit reviews Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian (The MIT Press)

If you're interested in economics then I'd recommend. It gives a comprehensive overview of the titular economic models and their historical-societal contexts.

I don't know how hours of reading can be avoided. One book I've found very valuable is Richard Wolf's Contending Economic theories. https://www.amazon.ca/Contending-Economic-Theories-Neoclassical-Keynesian/dp/0262517833

As far as left economics it really only deals with Marxist style socialism. But it does so by contrasting it with Keynesian and Neoclassical theory in such a way that you come out the other end with a pretty good picture of the entire economic horizon (at least in the minds of the most influential thinkers in economics today). From there I'd look for books on other variants of post-capitalist economics.

He co-authored a pretty decent book on Economics. I've been reading it, pretty dry tbh.

Other than that, I think he's just been busy doing his political activism, which probably leads to some marginalization by the academic community.

Sowell is a Libertarian fanatic and his faith in the market approaches that of religious devotion (yes, I've read his work), so let's provide something with a little more balance.

Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian for the basics, and to help the reader understand that our system isn't a gift from god but a choice among competing systems, and Democracy at Work for something a little more granular.

>My question is, does something like this exist for marxist economics?

It's a solid question. One I'm actually trying to flesh out myself. I don't trust myself to give a good enough explanation of the topic so rather than that I'll try to point you in a couple directions.

Before I start listing stuff off though I'm going to make a quick note on the nature of the problem. In my opinion, one major feature of Marxian economics which has left it so fractured is the fact that Marx never got around to writing a tract on methodology. Because we have to reconstruct his method based on how he used it, it leaves a lot of room for debate over the nuances of what Marx was and wasn't doing. In broad strokes you can identify the major component parts, but once you get into the nuts and bolts of how each fits together, it can be tough to handle. I've found Paul Paolucci's book, 'Marx's Scientific Dialectics' to be useful on this front, but I'm not an expert and because of that remain skeptical even of that book as I recommend it.

I'd also note that I think it is more useful to categorize Marxian economics under the rubric of Political Economy rather than Economics as it's practiced today.

[This list is by no means exhaustive] Anyway, some books/articles/resources you may find helpful:

The Marxists Internet Archive Encyclopedia - Useful in general, may not help on this specific question.

Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian by Wolff and Resnick - Generally a useful text/primer. I'd suggest checking the table of contents provided there to see if it will address some issues you're interested in. I think the discussion of 'Class' is pretty useful.

'Microfoundations of Marxism' by Daniel Little - This article appears as chapter 31 in a text entitled Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science

'The Scientific Marx' by Daniel Little - I haven't been able to read this yet but chapter 5 is devoted to Microfoundations and chapter 6 to the use of evidence.

'Analytical Foundations of Marxian Economic Theory' by John Roemer - Roemer is(was?) a member of the analytical Marxist tradition which sprang up in the 1970s. One of their major differences between other forms of Marxism was the rejection of dialectics and the use of Neoclassical modelling tools to develop various Marxian economic/social theories. Many of their methods and developments are considered controversial among orthodox Marxists, but I think they're worth reading none-the-less. This leads naturally to:

Analytical Marxism by John Roemer - A more general take on analytical Marxism. Addresses issues with historical materialism, combining Marxism with game-theory and even moral considerations.

I've also been reading the Elgar Companion to Marxian Economics which contains a set of essays on various topics within more orthodox Marxian econ

A decent starting econ text is Carbaugh's Contemporary Economics. It's intended for a college course that covers both micro and macro. It's a short but reasonably good text.

From there, you could move on to Contending Economic Theories by Richard D. Wolff. It covers the differences between and pedigree of Keynesian, Neoclassical, and Marxist theories.

You can check out /r/communism101 and /r/socialism to start, the former of which has a lot of great information in the sidebar just to start.

Economics Professor Richard Wolff has written a few books on the current and future crises of capitalism - right now I'm in the middle of this one.

There's also Capital in the Twenty First Century, and The ABCs of Socialism (PDF link).

That should be enough to get you started!

For more advanced readers I recommend New Departures in Marxian Theory. The book is essentially a formulation of their life project. I'm currently working my way through it and I have nothing but positive things to say about it.

> Over the last twenty-five years, Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff have developed a groundbreaking interpretation of Marxian theory generally and of Marxian economics in particular. This book brings together their key contributions and underscores their different interpretations.

> In facing and trying to resolve contradictions and lapses within Marxism, the authors have confronted the basic incompatibilities among the dominant modern versions of Marxian theory, and the fact that Marxism seemed cut off from the criticisms of determinist modes of thought offered by post-structuralism and post-modernism and even by some of Marxism’s greatest theorists.

For beginners who want more than Youtube videos, I recommend their outstanding textbook Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian.

Thanks for answering my question!

That's interesting what you say about the business cycle. Have you looked at Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian and Marxian by Wolff? He orientates an introduction to those schools of thought by discussing their theories of the business cycle, and contrasting them.

Is there any reason you thought the Austrian theory was the best?

Have you even bothered to read some of the most basic analysis?

> I do think both share a lot of bad traits that Austrian economic theory doesn’t suffer under...

The fact that Austrians reject empirical analysis of complex systems makes their entire project completely bunk.

For the second half I'd recommend Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici as a good starting point. It's going to respond to a lot of other thinkers, including Marx, so it can be a good starting point for further investigation on all the subjects I mentioned.

The first half isn't going to be the thesis of any works that I know of; but more of a truism that appears throughout a ton of works. I'll respond in part with an explanation and recommend some basic readings that might flesh out the ideas more.

The word "economy" comes from the Greek "oikos" meaning "home" and "nomos" meaning which refers to the function of it. It's very similar to the word "ecology" which is the combination of "oikos" and "logos", or the logic of the home. As a result, for the ancient Greeks, "economy" referred to the functioning of the household. The house and surrounding land in Athens was referred to a "demo" and constituted a single economic unit run by a single family. A government built with these units was called a "democracy", or a nation of "demos". You can read more about this in The Ancient City by Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges to understand the basic terms and theories going into the structures of our society today, which are based heavily on the ancient Greek language and understanding of the world (as the article above indicates as well).

A fun book that discusses the theme of economics and the formation of society is Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals. It's not full of references or citations, but more of a thought experiment on the subject that I think lays some good groundwork for understanding some of the motivations for the creation of a society. A more specific analysis on the goals and aspirations of an economy can be found in the general cannon, like Smith's Wealth of Nations and the critical response from Marx in Das Kapital. These are both introductory texts on the subject and a little outdated of course. If you want a more contemporary understanding of economic systems and what they do today, I'd recommend Wolff's Contending Economic Theories. These books aren't about why economies come first in society (other than the Genealogy of Morals), but they are a knowledge foundation as to why societies are organized in order to create an economy.

Richard Wolff's "Contending Economic Theories" would probably be a better start. It compares the three major economic schools, neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian, and studies each economic model in depth. It even gives the mathematical models used by economists in each school (but in no way is it math heavy at all). After it looks into each school in depth it analyzes late neoclassical thought, oscillations in the systems, and some of the philosophical premises behind each system. Wolff is a prominent Marxian economist, and the book undoubtedly spends the most time with and favors Marxian economics, but it's a great source to gain an extensive knowledge of each system.

I wanna know the books YOU read. Have you read these economics books? https://www.amazon.ca/Modern-Political-Economics-Making-Post-2008/dp/0415428882/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1523985014&sr=8-6&keywords=yanis+varoufakis

https://www.amazon.ca/Contending-Economic-Theories-Neoclassical-Keynesian/dp/0262517833/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523985080&sr=1-6