William Coleman and Alf Hagger
EXASPERATING CALCULATORS
The rage over economic rationalism and the campaign against Australian economists
In the past decade, Australian politics has been haunted by two words: Economic Rationalism. They were burnt into the Australian mind in a fire that is still well alight. Exasperating Calculators is a withering new critique of this conflagration.
The authors argue that the alarm over Economic Rationalism was a case of a ‘moral panic': a group of persons were identified as a threat to society, and the ‘moral barricades' were then manned by editors, bishops, politicians and right thinking people in an attempt to denounce and root out those purportedly engaged in undermining society as we know it.
Exasperating Calculators is a critical account of how the fire was lit, how it was fed, and how it was fought. It looks at the protagonists and the targets; the arguments and the facts; what was said and done and what should have been said and done.
"Exasperating Calculators is one of the most important and valuable books on economy and society to emerge for some time. For any reader, whether economically-literate or not, it is a vastly helpful aid to clear thinking in an area where too many muddy the waters. The authors' often-acid pens add a touch of Schadenfreude to the pleasure of reading." Hal GP Colebatch, Salisbury Review, UK, Summer 2001
"Coleman and Hagger expose a litany of factual mistakes, illogical and disingenuous arguments, an ignorance of economic theory and economic history and, in Pusey's case, most of the above plus a deeply flawed use of his own survey data on which key arguments are based." Alan Wood, The Australian, February 20 2001
Publication information
Publication date: February 2001
Recommended retail price: $29.95 (inc.GST)
Paperback, 215 x 140 mm, 336 pages, footnotes, bibliography, index
ISBN 1 876492 03 1
Publisher:
Macleay Press, PO Box 477, Paddington NSW 2021
Telephone 02 9360 2534 Fax 02 9331 7368
email: sales@macleaypress.com
