History of Economic Thought

These Annotations discuss Marx's \emph{Capital} paragraph by paragraph and,
if necessary, sentence by sentence.
They consist of a new translation of Marx's text,
printed in parallel with the German,
interspersed with comments.
The comments try to make the logical development of Marx's argument explicit,
including those steps which Marx himself only indicated through his terminology,
or which he took for granted and did not think he had to explain,
or about which Marx was silent at this point for other reasons.

This interpretation of Marx
is indebted to Critical Realism,
a philosophical current founded by  Roy Bhaskar which,
in my view, is the best systematic development
of Marx's methodology available today.
Critical Realism arose from modern
philosophical critiques of positivism,
and furnishes a derivation from first principles
of many themes
that are present in Marx's reasoning,
but which are rarely explained by Marx himself.

Антологията по икономически теории има за цел да събере оригинални текстове от бележити икономисти, както и анализи на изследователи на икономическите уче-ния, които да допринесат за запознаването на българския читател с основните кон-цепции и тенденции в развитието на стопанската наука от XVIII до XXI век. Издаването на антологията се вписва в световните тенденции на засилен интерес към богатството на алтернативни подходи и оригинални решения на стопанскопо-литически проблеми в историята на икономическата мисъл. Съчиненията на големите представители на икономическата наука често са тълкувани едностранчиво и цитирани избирателно в актуалния дебат на дадена епоха, но – както систематичното занимание с развитието на стопанските идеи показва – те са съкровищница на оригинални гледни точки и тълкувания с голяма практическа стойност от перспективата на постоянния стремеж към подобрение на социалната организация на човешката дейност.

В настоящия втори том намират място ключови текстове и аспекти от творчеството на икономистите-неокласици, преди всичко на Алфред Маршал и Ървин Фишер, представителите на немската историческа школа – Адам Мюлер, Фридрих Лист, Бруно Хилдебранд, Густав Шмолер, Вернер Зомбарт, както и на Рудолф Хилфердинг, старите институционалисти Торстейн Веблен и Кларънс Айръс и на големите австрийски икономисти Фридрих фон Хайек и Йозеф Шумпетер. Основната част на книгата е предшествана от аналитично проследяване на главните линии на развитие в икономическата мисъл от ранната неокласическа школа до работата на Хайек и Шумпетер от доц. д-р Теодор Седларски.

Антологията се издава със съдействието на Центъра за икономически теории и стопански политики (www.economy.uni-sofia.bg).

The objective of this undergraduate thesis is to study in historical perspective, through a theoretical analysis, how the neoclassical synthesis was formed by investigating the hypothesis that there would have been a macroeconomic consensus. Macroeconomics has always been characterized as a field in intense ideological dispute, however it is possible that a consensus was brought about in the 1950s-1960s in respect to some core propositions characteristics of a research program that emerged after the Keynesian Revolution, but conserved influences of the classical microeconomic framework. This study also conducted a survey, using articles of the time, on the definition of neoclassical synthesis, aiming to determine whether it was given only a posteriori, which would allow to state that the leading economists of the period of the so-called "neoclassical synthesis" shared a theoretical core, nevertheless they did not invariably worked with the same issues and with the same goals.

Production, distribution, and consumption of digital use values occur today in a sociotechnological setting quite different from that characterizing the industrial economic system. Thanks to increasing access to hardware, software, and the Internet—the means of production in the digital economy—a growing multitude of digital immaterial labors contributes to the digital economy within a culture of sharing and (a culture of) nonexclusionary use of resources. As various online sharing platforms illustrate, digital immaterial labor constitutes a collective and collaborative productive force, an online general intellect, that cannot be reified in the means of production traditionally under the control of capital. This dynamic allows the online multitude to organize itself independently of the logic and management of capital. Capital, however, has been able to develop strategies, peculiar to this new socioeconomic system, that aim to control and profit from the collective intelligence created by digital immaterial labor.

Some of Law and Economics’ basic claims have come to be criticized as a result of empirical findings that question their viability. Particularly, the premise that agents consistently act rationally and with their self-interest in mind seems problematic. What the consequences of the criticism mean for Law and Economics’ tenability depends largely on the questions whether (1) some elements are unassailable to the alternative’s objections and (2) the alternative is a systematic whole. It is argued that Law and Economics may be salvaged, if it is minimized and its ambitions are tempered. This means focusing on the stable, a priori, elements inherent to it.

The paper describes the last major failure of an Irish bank, that of the Munster Bank in 1885.  It discusses whether the Bank of Ireland, as quasi-central bank at the time, should have rescued the ailing Munster. The discussion bears on the issue of moral hazard for lenders of last resort.

이 글은 1950년대 후반 미국의 경제학자 존 케네스 갤브레이스가 제시한 “풍요의 사회”에 대한 비판이 1960년대 중반 린든 존슨 대통령이 추진했던 “위대한 사회” 정책에 지대한 영향을 주었다고 주장한다. 1952년 대통령 선거에서 민주당은 공화당의 드와이트 아이젠하워에게 패배했고, 이로써 프랭클린 루스벨트부터 20년 간 독점했던 정권을 상실했다. 민주당에게 이 패배는 일종의 성공이 낳은 역설이었다. 루스벨트의 뉴딜과 해리 트루먼의 페어딜로 대표되는 민주당 정부의 복지 및 경제 정책들은 미국을 대공황의 충격으로부터 구출하여 전후 장기호황의 시대로 인도했다. 그러나 이 새로운 풍요의 시대에 빈곤의 극복이라는 미국 개혁진영의 오랜 과제는 설득력과 적실성을 잃어갔다. 일부 민주당 인사들은 새 시대에 맞는 새로운 개혁과제로 경제성장과 이를 통한 국민 생활수준의 증진을 제안했다. 갤브레이스를 비롯한 몇몇 인사들은 미국의 당면과제는 경제성장이 아니라 시민 개개인의 “삶의 질”을 향상시키는 일이라고 주장했다. 이 과업은 오직 건강, 문화, 주거, 교통, 교육, 환경 등 모든 공공복지의 영역을 확충하는 것으로만 실현될 수 있을 것이었다. 이러한 갤브레이스의 주장은 린든 존슨에게 큰 영감을 주었으며, 그가 후일 위대한 사회라는 이름으로 추진했던 개혁정책들에 반영이 되었다. 갤브레이스의 풍요의 사회에서부터 존슨의 위대한 사회까지 이어진 이 글의 이야기는 개인의 행복한 삶과 사회의 공공복지가 전후 미국 복지국가의 구상과 실천에서 불가분의 관계로 연결되어 있었다는 사실을 보여줄 것이다.

In order to restore the global economy to solid and sustainable growth, capitalism needs to be reformed from an irrational profit-maximising model into a more rational profit-equalising one. In the aggregate the growth rate of gross operating surplus plus gross mixed income must equal that of gross domestic product and not exceed it, thereby ensuring that the compensation of employees increases proportionally as well. This would prevent the deflationary effect of having continually to refinance debt as it increases disproportionally relative to GDP over successive economic cycles, the root cause of which is not treating the compensation of employees as both a cost and an income in the pursuit of maximising profitability. In SNA national income accounting methodology, income derived GDP is equal to gross operating surplus plus gross mixed income plus compensation of employees plus taxes on production and imports less subsidies. Thus, as profit and mixed income increase relative to GDP, employee compensation must necessarily decrease proportionally with allowances for taxes and subsidies. As wages and salaries are both a cost and an income, which is a self-evident truth, if they are suppressed as a cost on the supply side of an economy in order to maximise profit, this reduction affects aggregate demand by a proportional amount on the demand side by weakening the multiplier. This distorts supply and demand, leading to serious economic imbalances over time. Prices or rather their relative components of wages and profit determine the equilibrium of supply and demand in the aggregate rather than the other way around as the fundamental tenet of neo-classical economics proposes.

The equation below provides evidence that the first principle of wages being a cost and an income is key to balancing supply and demand, and income and expenditure over the economic cycle as well as economics becoming a fully-fledged science. Using United States’ national accounts time series data between 1972 and 2007 to empirically demonstrate a causal connection between the real and financial economies, the increasing dysfunction of the business cycle can be explained. Evidence from other national economies is examined as well. Despite wages being both a cost and a source of demand being obvious and fundamental to Keynes’ demand side theory in his General Theory, it has never been properly acknowledged or its effects fully understood. This reluctance to examine profit is an example of the dialectical opposition between convention based on excessive self-interest in the face of a seemingly uncertain and threatening environment and reason based on the underlying scientific laws of nature. Convention is always stronger than reason in the short to medium term and is only forced to become more rational in the longer term once it has finally collapsed under the weight of its contradiction with reality. The convention of profit-maximising capitalism could soon be at this point if the wall of corporate refinancing it faces in the next few years proves to be insurmountable.

Este trabajo ha sido realizado como parte integrante del proyecto de investigación y desarrollo "Desequilibrio estructural externo y estancamiento productivo en los Países subdesarrollados: el caso Argentino", PID 3-066000/85 del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), institución a la que se agradece profundamente el apoyo prestado.

This paper presents an overview of the adoption of Adam Smith’s work in the Central European countries, namely the Czech lands and the Hungarian Kingdom in the last third of the 18th and the first half of the 19th century. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first one, after a short presentation concerning the teaching and writing on economic issues in Smith’s time, we discuss various channels through which Smith’s ideas reached Central Europe. We take stock of the economists influenced by his thoughts, most of them students at the University of Göttingen. In the second part, we discussed the life and the work of Gregorius von Berzeviczy, an eminent economist living in the Kingdom of Hungary, who seemed to be most influenced by the teaching of the Great Scotsman. We reviewed Berzeviczy’s main works and discussed his influence.

A través d’una recerca etimològica i filosòfica del terme "economia", el present treball mostra com el seu sentit original es referia a la destresa en la correcta disposició i administració dels recursos escassos. Aquesta concepció original del terme mostra que l’economia presenta dues dimensions diferenciades: una dimensió objectiva i una altra de subjectiva o espiritual. A través d’aquesta dualitat, el treball posa de manifest com la ciència econòmica actual resta centrada majoritàriament en l’anàlisi d’aquesta dimensió objectiva i que, en canvi, simplifica i d’alguna manera obvia la dimensió espiritual mitjançant supòsits reduccionistes com la racionalitat dels agents econòmics o el dels mercats eficients. En aquest sentit, el present treball aprofundeix en aquesta dimensió espiritual “oblidada” a través del pensament de John Maynard Keynes, i més concretament, a través d’una recerca al voltant de dues nocions keynesianes: els animal spirits i els states of mind.

In 1899, MIT chemist Ellen H. Richards (1842-1911) instigated a series of annual "Lake Placid Conferences" (1899-1908) that became known as the foundation of the home economics movement. Richards's first interest was in improving the household's well-being by using sanitary and nutrition sciences, an objective that was passed on to the movement. However, by the 1920s, home economists rather identified their field of expertise as the "science of consumption," emphasizing the idea of "rational consumption." My aim in this article is to give an account of how this shift in focus came about, by telling the story of the home economics movement founded by Richards. I examine how the movement problematized consumption by highlighting its relationship, and perception of itself, regarding economics. I argue that the concept of consumption was central to the structuring of the movement from its beginning and allowed home economists to claim it as their field of expertise because, as they believed, economists were not addressing the issue.

This book presents the history of the Higher School Of Commerce – Varna in the context of the economic and cultural development of Bulgaria (Varna in particular) at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. In the present monograph there are traced the factors and the circumstances for the emergence of higher education in economics in Europe and in Bulgaria, the first attempts in this perspective in the town of Varna and the institutions and activists associated with that, the actions on the establishment of Varna Higher School Of Commerce, its development over the years, its status and structure, its funding, educational activity, students, lecturers, library stock and buildings. In the final part of the book there are put forward some generalizations with regard to the achievements and the problems of the Higher School of Commerce – Varna and its place in the educational and public area of Bulgaria in the period between the wars.

What are the cornerstones of Nobel laureate Jean Tirole’s thinking and how do they influence the contemporary debates about the future of economic science, its role in society, and the need to regulate markets? This paper aims to illustrate the main characteristics of the French economist’s thought and to contextualise them with respect to its time, its biography, and other thinkers’ critiques.

After a brief introduction, Section 2 presents the main events making Tirole’s life and career, Section 3 expounds the change in economic paradigm proposed by the author departing from the pervasive assumption that decision-takers (i.e. consumers, firms, governments, etc.) are rational, Section 4 summarises Tirole’s analysis of competition and regulation which won him the Nobel Prize, while Section 5 focuses on the regulation of financial markets, and Section 6 concludes.

Yakov Leshchinsky’s 1928 essay, here translated from the Yiddish, provides the first cross-national analysis of the migration and class transformation of world Jewry in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It draws on diverse and widely scattered official and historical sources in German, Polish, Russian, Yiddish and other languages. A careful, complex and empirically grounded work, it helped to boost Leschinsky’s scholarly reputation. Before long, its author was routinely referred to as “the father of Jewish demography” and “the dean of Jewish sociologists.”

Current consumption theory neglects the concept of 'needs' as an important factor. I show that in economic classical writings 'needs' did play a significant role, explain when and why it disappeared, and assert that yet there is a room for extending current consumption theory to include 'needs'. I then provide an indication for the importance of the concept of 'needs' for a better understanding of consumption behavior. I use nonparametric estimation to compare expenditure data of households in financial distress provided by Paamonim organization to expenditure data of the general population provided by the CBS, and find that people in financial distress spend relatively more on categories that are perceived intuitively as 'needs' and relatively less on categories that are perceived as 'luxuries'. Still, when required to cut their expense, the Paamonim households prefer, on average, to cut their spending on 'luxuries'. This indication might strengthen the assertion that homo economicus is not only utility maximizer, but also and firstly need satisfier.

President Andrew Jackson’s conflict with the Second Bank of the United States was one of the most consequential political struggles in the early 19th century. A fight over the Bank's reauthorization, the “Bank War,” provoked fundamental disagreements over the role of money in politics, competing constitutional interpretations, equal opportunity in the face of a state-sanctioned monopoly, and the importance of financial regulation—all of which cemented emerging differences between Jacksonian Democrats and Whigs. As Stephen W. Campbell argues here, both sides in the Bank War engaged interregional communications networks funded by public and private money. The first reappraisal of this political turning point in American history in almost 50 years, The Bank War and the Partisan Press advances a new interpretation by focusing on the funding and dissemination of the party press.
Drawing on insights from the fields of political history, the history of journalism, and financial history, The Bank War and the Partisan Press brings to light a revolving cast of newspaper editors, financiers, and postal workers who appropriated the financial resources of pre-existing political institutions, and even created new ones, to enrich themselves and further their careers. The Bank propagated favorable media and tracked public opinion through its system of branch offices, while the Jacksonians did the same by harnessing the patronage networks of the Post Office.
Campbell’s work contextualizes the Bank War within larger political and economic developments at the national and international levels. Its focus on the newspaper business documents the transition from a seemingly simple question of renewing the Bank’s charter to a multi-sided, nationwide sensation that sorted the American public into ideologically polarized political parties. In doing so, The Bank War and the Partisan Press shows how the conflict played out on the ground level in various states--in riots, duels, raucous public meetings, politically orchestrated bank runs, arson, and assassination attempts. The resulting narrative moves beyond the traditional boxing match between Jackson and Bank president Nicholas Biddle, balancing political institutions with individual actors, and business practices with party attitudes.

La dimension économique de la vie sociale tend à s'étendre dans les sociétés occidentales et ce, depuis au moins une trentaine d'années. La théorie économique gagne du terrain sans nul doute en raison de l'élargissement du capitalisme à l'échelle de la planète qu'on associe aujourd'hui à la mondialisation.

Il percorso teorico di uno dei più influenti e discussi pensatori liberali del Novecento, Premio Nobel per l’economia nel 1974. Dai primi saggi economici degli anni Venti e Trenta sino agli sviluppi degli anni Quaranta e agli esiti successivi, quando la riflessione di Hayek si è concentrata sui temi del diritto e della libertà, dello Stato e dell’ordine sociale.

This article was first published in ,” Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy, ed. Michael L. Coulter, Stephen M. Krason, Richard S. Myers, and Joseph A. Varacalli.  (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, Scarecrow Press, 2007).

Il paper inquadra il pensiero di Amartya Sen all'interno della millenaria evoluzione del concetto di povertà dalle economie palatine al liberalismo ottocentesco. L'idea dell'economista indiano ne emerge dotata di straordinaria capacità di sintesi tra l'approccio statalista della giustizia economica e l'opposto individualismo efficentista.

This book is a historical reconstruction of one of the most significant – although not faultless – creation of the European civilisation: the gentleman.

Essays about Grotius, Shaftesbury, Hume, Smith, Burke, Tocqueville, Lord Acton, John Lukacs, Géza Ottlik and others

Il testo Sul finire dell'Ottocento nell'opinione colta italiana iniziò a dissolversi il convincimento di poter trapiantare nel nostro Paese il sistema politico-istituzionale britannico. Gli intellettuali, perlopiù economisti, che si riunirono attorno al «Giornale degli economisti», insieme a poche altre personalità come Luigi Einaudi e Giorgio Arcoleo, furono tra i pochi a ritenere praticabile tale esperimento e a proporlo come via d'uscita non autoritaria alla crisi di fine secolo. In tale battaglia politica, essi avrebbero veicolato un'immagine della Gran Bretagna che andava ormai scolorendo, cristallizzata nella stagione gladstoniana e ancorata a una visione minimale delle funzioni dello Stato. La non piena comprensione del progressivo avvicinamento del modello politico e amministrativo d'oltremanica a quello dei principali Paesi dell'Europa continentale costituì peraltro una felice circostanza nella misura in cui ebbe l'effetto di agevolare la difesa delle libertà statutarie. L'autore Luca Tedesco, già docente Erasmus presso la Freie Universität di Berlino e attualmente professore associato in Storia contemporanea presso l'Università degli Studi Roma Tre, dirige la collana Liberismi italiani dell'Istituto Bruno Leoni di Torino. Ha pubblicato diverse monografie e articoli sulla storia del pensiero economico, tra cui Dal libero scambio all'autarchia. Gino Borgatta e gli «interessi dell'economia nazionale» (2016); Il protezionismo come irrazionalità economica e «sentimento di egoismo patriottico» nell'analisi e nella denuncia di Gino Borgatta sulla grande stampa d'opinione (2016); Gino Borgatta e la crisi economica degli anni Trenta tra protezionismo condizionato e autarchia inderogabile (2012); Il canto del cigno del liberoscambismo: la Lega antiprotezionista e il suo primo convegno nazionale (2008); Un tentativo di fronte «padronale»: la Confintesa (1956-1958) (2008) e L'alternativa liberista. Crisi di fine secolo, antiprotezionismo e finanza democratica nei liberisti radicali (1898-1904) (2002). Per i tipi di Mondadori Università ha scritto un manuale di Didattica della Storia per la scuola primaria e dell'infanzia.

"From Adam Smith to Chicago School, From Political Economy to Economy, Human Capital Theory: An Analysis On the Basis of Theoretic Breakdowns and Continuities": In the book of ‘Welfare of Nations’ which is Adam Smith’s, the explanations that made about source of differences among division of labor and the wage of qualified and non-qualified labor have central significance for century of itself and for now. In this paper, starting from qualified and non-qualified labor argument of Smith to the process of ‘human capital theory’ will be examined which is crystallized with the help of ‘marginalist revolution’ at the 20th century. The focus of this study is exposing basic elements of human capital theory that has the continuity of the frame which Smith scored and to be told as epistemological breaks from Smith’s frame at the same time. In this context, it could be an example that lasting states from Smith’s perspective to human capital theory, however their implicit differentia...

El presente documento analiza de manera comparativa las dimensiones epistemológicas de las ciencias físico/naturales –especialmente la física y la biología– y de la economía en sus esfuerzos por estructurar un status de ciencia. Se plantea la tesis de que entre el pensamiento científico –especialmente el emanado de las ciencias físicas– y el pensamiento económico se comparten ciertos criterios epistemológicos en la manera de abordar sus respectivos objetos de estudio, siendo ello uno de los factores por los cuales los debates epistemológicos se convierten en el Talón de Aquiles de la economía. Además, se identifica que pocos son los autores de las ciencias económicas que muestran una preocupación genuina por establecer criterios sólidos y referentes metodológicos que orienten la construcción del conocimiento científico sobre la vida económica; entre estos autores destacan Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Alfred Marshall y Milton Friedman, entre los cuales existen diferencias y matices importantes. Finalmente, se concluye con una serie de preguntas sugestivas relativas a los desafíos teórico/epistemológicos de las ciencias económicas y a la necesidad de trascender las posturas positivistas que históricamente le caracterizan.

In 1964, Buchanan wrote an article in which he criticized the definition of economics given by Robbins in his Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. This article is remarkable because it represents Buchanan's attempts to redefine economics, that is, not only to propose his own definition but also to attack the standard, Robbins, definition of the discipline. More precisely, Buchanan thus offers a catallactic criticism of Robbins' definition. The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss Buchanan's criticism and to show how he organizes the presentation of his own definition.

The essay offers a new understanding of Henry Charles Carey's (1793-1879) social science. As one of the major intellectuals of the antebellum period that actively participated in the Republican Party, Carey's works marked a reinterpretation of US nationalism in which the State became the guarantee of the exceptional American social order against social conflict and economic crisis following the capitalistic transition. Protectionism was conceived as a political measure to defend the harmony of the nation's interests. His social science should be understood as an attempt to scientifically re-legitimize the order: as a social science of the American nation.

Information technology has the potential to decrease substantially, if not completely, the demand for base money. This poses a problem for central banks as it seemingly eliminates a role for monetary policy, at least in the traditional sense. Recently, it has become commonplace to consider the role of monetary policy and the determination of the price level without any reference to money. The two predominant methods of analysis in this regard are the New Keynesian framework articulated by Woodford (2003) and the scal theory of the price level as described in Cochrane (2005). Lost in the literature on " cashless" economies is the work of Jürg Niehans (1982) who, driven by the perplexities of the Eurodollar market, considered the role of monetary policy and price level determination in the context of a neoclassical macroeconomic model. This paper contrasts the framework and conclusions of Niehans with the contemporary approaches. It is argued that Niehans successfully anticipated the conclusions of the scal theory of the price level.

We examine the most famous controversy between economists as a means of shedding fresh light on the current debate about economic methodology. By focusing on the controversy as the primary unit of analysis, we show how methodological considerations are but one of a whole set of stratagems strategically employed by each opponent. We argue that each opponent's preference for a particular kind of stratagems expresses his own specific scientific style. We also describe a dynamic dimension of the controversy, independent of the participants' intentions, which we analyse in a "cycle" of the controversy. The definition and re-definition of the issue(s) at stake and of the difference between both participants is an essential and recurrent feature of such cycles; the conclusion of a cycle does not imply a real closure of the controversy, but only persuasion. Rather, its benefit seems to lie in an unintended result - clarification and deepening of contrasting approaches to the discipline  -  due to its peculiar dynamics. In so far as the history of a discipline requires a reconstruction of such contrasts, it is indispensable for it to take into account the controversies where they emerge, and to view both the positive doctrines and the methodological posture of the contenders as parts of a wider framework, that is a scientific style.

ENGLISH
In the decade before World War I, close connections developed in Italy between the nationalists and major elements of large-scale industry. As the Italian Nationalist Association, founded in 1910, became the main political reference for industrialists, the ties between nationalism and the business community helped to undermine the liberal state and end the political system established by Giovanni Giolitti. During World War I, the Nationalist Association developed close links withthe Ansaldo company and supported it in the ‘parallel wars’ of Italian capitalism.
Ansaldo went bankrupt in 1921, but the nationalists were able to establish relations with other entrepreneurs. Their connection with large-scale industry lay behind Mussolini’s decision in 1923 to accept the Nationalist Association into the National Fascist Party. Nationalism not only ensured that important economic forces would support the Fascist regime but its ideology significantly contributed to the building of Mussolini’s dictatorship.

ITALIAN
Negli anni ’10 in Italia si sviluppò una stretta connessione tra il nazionalismo e settori significativi della grande industria. L’Associazione nazionalista italiana (A.N.I.), fondata nel 1910, divenne il principale riferimento politico del mondo imprenditoriale.
Il legame tra la grande industria e i nazionalisti contribuì a mettere in crisi lo stato liberale e il sistema instaurato da Giovanni Giolitti. Durante la prima guerra mondiale l’A.N.I. si legò strettamente all’Ansaldo e la sostenne nelle ‘guerre parallele’ che dilaniarono il capitalismo italiano. L’Ansaldo crollò nel 1921, ma i nazionalisti riuscirono a riallacciare rapidamente i rapporti con gli altri imprenditori.
Dopo la marcia su Roma, il legame con la grande industria il principale elemento che spinse Mussolini ad accogliere l’A.N.I. prima nel governo e poi nel Partito nazionale fascista. Il nazionalismo fece sì che importanti forze economiche aderissero al fascismo e contribuì in maniera significativa all’edificazione del regime.

Uncertainty and information are ideas that have a central role in contemporary economics in the domain of decision theory. The expected utility hypothesis is a powerful instruments widely used in theoretical and empirical analysis. Contemporary economics considers the theme of uncertainty as a branch of decision theory. This is not a necessary result of a linear history, rather of an intellectual path that was not easily foreseable at the end of Nineteenth Century. The leading role in this story is not played by utility, as is usual in the traditional reconstructions of historians of economic thought, but by probability. Uncertainty is in fact a multifaceted concept. It refers to a subjective condition or a mental status of an agent not knowing for certain the consequences of a present or a future event (subjective uncertainty). It refers also to an objective status of things that may results in different outcomes (frequency of occurences), or are knowable only through careful measurements subjected to errors (objective uncertainty). Because the modern developments could happen, two conditions were required: both objective and subjective uncertainty needed to be treated with the device of probability. Both these recognitions slowly emerged between 17th and 20th century.

"Abstract: The core economic functions of production and distribution of goods can be handled by many different methods. After the fall of communism, the market mechanism has become nearly universal. Conventional economic theories argue that this is natural, because it is the best and the most efficient method for organizing economic affairs in a society. This paper, based on the analysis of Polanyi (1944) and Klein (2008) argues that the opposite is true. Market mechanisms conflict with natural mechanisms for production and exchange in traditional societies. Unregulated markets cause tremendous damage, as can be witnessed today in terms of countless economic crises, wars, environmental destruction, as well as damage to social networks. Because of this damage, market societies can only be maintained
by force, as well as disinformation. To resolve crises on myriad fronts caused by the unregulated market, it is the need of the hour to find viable alternatives."