The Golden Calf: Economism and American Policy - Softcover

Brody, Howard

9781463762759: The Golden Calf: Economism and American Policy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1463762755 ISBN 13: 9781463762759

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011

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American politicians and policymakers tend to hold certain truths as self-evident—that the “free market” should be permitted to control as much of our lives and society as possible, and that the proper role of government is to get out of the market’s way. In this book, Howard Brody challenges these so-called truths. He shows first that this way of thinking constitutes a belief system called economism. He next demonstrates that while economism claims to be a set of hard-headed scientific facts, it actually functions as a system of religious or quasi-religious beliefs. He finally traces the historical roots of economism to reveal that it takes many of its core ideas from two religious sources—evangelicalism in nineteenth century England, and the “Protestant Ethic” that evolved from Calvinist and Puritan beliefs in America in the eighteenth century. Brody explains that since economism is posing as a scientific, factual account of the world but actually is not, deception and stealth necessarily accompany economism wherever it rears its head. After giving examples of the tragic effects that policies promoted by economism have had on American life and culture, Brody discusses what we can do to rescue our future from this misguided way of thinking.

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About the Author

Howard Brody, MD, PhD is a philosopher, family physician, and teacher of health care ethics and humanities, and the author of previous books including The Future of Bioethics. He is Director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

Review

Another book sets out to explain some of the mechanisms behind the current financial situation—but with an interesting twist all its own.

Going from the roots of the Evangelical movement through Puritanism in America and up to the current state of economic thought, Brody presents an engaging read about how much of what is being passed off as economics today, rather than being actual economics, is what he calls (following Des Gasper) “economism.” A subject distinct from economics, economism is about economics as a disguised religion. From the Irish Potato Famine through today's public policies, our current economic situation, the role economism played in the 2008 recession and even a detour through Intelligent Design (used primarily as an analogy for economism), Brody paints a picture of economism as a religious cult disguised as economics. Which is, after all, his goal for the
book—to show economism as a “category mistake,” or a mistake of using one logical category where a different category should be used. Various themes are brought up and woven throughout: religion, poverty, layoffs and health care, to name a few. Notable among the recurring themes is Brody's issue with supply-side economics, particularly Milton Friedman and the “Chicago Boys.” And though he is not himself an economist, his writing reveals an understanding of the principles behind economics and public policies, using analogies throughout to give substance to his thoughts. Almost every chapter starts with some sort of anecdote that highlights a mistake that has been made by economists or politicians and ends with a plethora of notes and sources.

An intriguing, somewhat philosophically tinged attack aimed at showing a certain ideological view of economics as “religious faith, dressed
up as if it were science.”
-Kirkus

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