Book Reviews
Amazon (Michael Beitler, Thomas Mayor, Robert Murphy, Ken Chilton, Greg Rehmke) link
Burton Folsom, Liberty Magazine link
Michael Beltier, The Freeman link
Peter Lewin, Review of Austrian Economics link
Reason.tv link
Richard Gordon, Cato Journal link
William A. Mogel, Energy Law Journal link
I welcome commentary or critical reviews that advance the debate in a constructive manner. So far the reviews have been positive and from the center-right side of the political aisle. The Left, unfortunately, has ignored the book despite its cogent challenge to their interpretation of the world. But the book has staying power, and its publication date is 2009, so I still have hope that Capitalism at Work can be seriously challenged by a strong mind of disagreement.
Even among the (positive) reviews, however, many authors have focused only on parts of the book that overlap with their own research or interests. For that reason, the “macro” themes of the book are worth elucidating here.
The book may come across as far-flung, but the common denominator is the worldview needed to understand a “top ten” event in the making of capitalism’s public image. That “top ten” event was the bubble company. It is surprising how much of the classical liberal worldview comes into play to understand the rise and fall of Enron. And this is why my “Enron book” has turned into a trilogy with Book 1 on worldview.
Secondly, Capitalism at Work is at root a book about organizational failure (versus success). As I posit in the dense 13-page introduction (available here), good thinking and practices in the intellectual and political arenas are important for good business practices and companies that are sustainable and respected. Bad thinking about energy and widespread energy interventionism, on the other hand, result in bad business. And, as I show, such thinking and practices allowed an Enron first to get on top and then to fail.
Critics of capitalism have pointed to Enron (and the current financial crisis) as proof for their worldview and policy positions. In fact, the lessons of Enron (and the present failures of political economy) suggest the opposite. The blame rests with the government side of the mixed economy, not capitalism proper. ThusCapitalism at Work should be seen as part of the current debate over the role of markets and government in America’s political economy. Enron, indeed, was the “canary in the coal mine” of the present financial crisis in important respects, a theme of Book 3 to come.