An extract from Will Davies’ excellent review of the recently published Economists and the Powerful, by Norbert Häring & Niall Douglas:

“Debunking the most abstract of economic theories, by comparing them to empirical cases and evidence, is a worthwhile exercise, if it induces more economists to question and criticise how capitalism actually works. But debunking and jettisoning the abstractions, albeit while pointing to whose interests they seem to serve, does not provide an example of how else to theorise capitalism.”

For the full review, published on New Left Project, see http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/apologists_for_power