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Elementary Principles of Economics
by Irving Fisher
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| Editorial Review |
| Editorial Review |
| From America's first celebrated economist comes this 1912 textbook with a succinct yet highly informative introduction to economics as it was understood and practiced in the early 20th century. Fisher provides in-depth discussions of basic topics including: . wealth, property, and income . credit and debt . currency, prices, and monetary systems . supply and demand, capital and labor . poverty . and more. American economist IRVING FISHER (1867-1947) was professor of political economy at Yale University. Among his many books are The Rate of Interest (1907), Why Is the Dollar Shrinking? A Study in the High Cost of Living (1914), and Booms and Depressions (1932). _____________________________ ALSO FROM COSIMO: Fisher's The Purchasing Power of Money: Its Determination and Relation to Credit Interest and Crises and Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices and Appreciation and Interest |
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| Product Details |
- Publisher: Cosimo Classics
- ISBN-10: 1-59605-933-8
- ISBN-13: 978-1-59605-933-7
- Amazon.com Sales Rank #2038257
- Published on: October 01, 2006
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 564 pages
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| Customer Review |
Yaakov (James) Mosher: Foundation stone  |
I'm pleased to be able to post the first review of Prof. Irving Fisher's "Elementary Principles of Economics" on Amazon.com. Considering the great minds that Fisher has inspired at his own Yale University (such as James Tobin and Robert Shiller) and elsewhere I'm greatly honored, although feeling some trepidation, to be in this position.
Let me start by stating that it's a great book. For one who contributed so much to mathematical economics, Fisher's ability as a writer astounds. Fisher (1867-1947) is much like his British contemporary John Maynard Keynes in this respect with their worldly manner of expression explaining much about their staying power.
The book's recap (p. 511, hardcover edition) - while giving his outline of "foundation stones," determination of prices, and principles of distribution - states Fisher's larger purpose. Living through heady times, the author knew any attempts at reform needed to be informed by sound principles. This position sounds much like what Leon Walras wrote about necessary scientific prerequisites.
Fisher stays away from applications and calls upon his readers to check their own partisan desires. Considering that Fisher was an inventive Yankee, thus geared toward practicality, "Elementary Principles" might have been his hardest book to write.
Our wise author makes a remark, seemingly offhanded, which sums up the probably the biggest problem in modern economics - the bias toward positivism (read: government action). "But knowledge, to be of use, must be applied," Fisher writes (p. 193). If taken as a license for perpetual policy-making this is not true. Knowledge is also useful in reckoning what not to do.
At the risk of appearing "unscientific" I'll point out that Judaism's Holy Torah has 365 negative commandments (Thou Shall Nots) and 248 positive. The blueprint of the universe shows us that it's more important to refrain from action than to take action.
The positivist bent becomes more understandable when Fisher discusses confidence and time. He calls confidence "the soul of trade" (p. 195). Factoring in instant worldwide communications and more complicated financial instruments and arrangements, which didn't exist when "Elementary Principles" was published in 1912, makes the professor's teachings about confidence more important to contemplate. Throw in the public's conditioning by the welfare/warfare state and the mass media over the past 60 years and we're drawn to the regrettable conclusion that economic efficiency, justice and liberty may all have to be impinged in the name of confidence.
Fisher's avoidance of applications gives "Elementary Principles" its permanence. Its detailed index takes us quickly to the issues and the professor's thorough exposition keeps us glued there. Among them - free trade (a sort of labor-saving machinery, p. 454), currency stability (importance in fulfilling contracts, p. 248), and business cycles (the bubble bursts because banks can't expand too far beyond their reserves, p. 188).
Social sacred cows are slaughtered along the way when the author explains the value of arbitrage and speculation (p. 340) and the destructive effects of vanity and social racing (p. 506). Agudath Israel of America's call for limits on wedding expenditures is a great example of using Fisher's teachings without resorting to government compulsion.
If some took Fisher's writings as an anthem for big government, the professor also set the table for the welfare state's ultimate undoing. His discussion of the declining wages phenomenon (p. 461-463) goes to the heart of the matter. The decline of savings means less capital and less capital means falling wages. Nothing better summarizes the bankruptcy of spendaholic Keynesianism (It's called CAPITAL-ism, remember.). Increasing government guarantees (social programs) and the accompanying bureaucratization worsens conditions by making people less willing to bear risk. Losses of self-reliance and the entrepreneurial spirit mean declining incomes for most and less government revenue. Ergo, the nanny state eats itself.
There are many more gems like this in "Elementary Principles," especially in the chapters on wealth and poverty, waiting to be discovered and applied, if only in our minds. The book is testament to why Irving Fisher, more than six decades after his death, remains one of the world's most important economic sociologists.
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