Is there a need for a new capitalism? Not so, says development economist Amartya Sen. Sen advises that we should re-read the works of two classic authors: Adam Smith and Arthur Cecil Pigou. From Sen's recent piece in The New York Review of Books:
The present economic crises do not, I would argue, call for a "new capitalism," but they do demand a new understanding of older ideas, such as those of Smith and, nearer our time, of Pigou, many of which have been sadly neglected. What is also needed is a clearheaded perception of how different institutions actually work, and of how a variety of organizations - from the market to the institutions of the state - can go beyond short-term solutions and contribute to producing a more decent economic world.
Join the Conversation