Lall B. Ramrattan

• New School for Social Research, Phd.
• Instructor at University of California, Berkeley

In this chapter, we introduced the background needed to understand the purpose of life from the economic standpoint. One gets a feeling for the thesis from a list of common usages of the term in the economic domain. David Hume sets the religious and philosophical groundworks as the springboard for Adam Smith’s development of classical political eco...

In this chapter, we cover the most controversial part of making economics holistic, by expounding the religious side of the human condition. We feature the main religions, namely Islam, Sufism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism. The objective is not to be exhaustive in their treatments, but to bring out aspects of them that complement the econom...

In this chapter, we look at the purpose of life from economics. The theme is that economics as it is practiced is not holistic. A representative definition is that it is practiced following the means to ends maxim. In doing so, it sets a goal that is materialistic, dealing mainly with the wealth of nations and the profits of agents. We examine this...

In Chapter 2, we look at the purpose of life from the scientific viewpoint. The approach involves studying how this concept can be demarcated for scientific and pseudo-scientific purposes. Many kinds of appraisals can be made such as the falsification and paradigmatic approaches to research programming and empirical validation. We are concern with...

In this chapter, we look at the state of economic development. We examine the main theories for economic growth and development from the classical, through the neoclassical to the modern growth models. The paradigm of these models moves from the necessity of surplus in consumption goods as a driver of development, to a neutrality principle which ho...

p>We present a contribution of Robert Heilbroner to classical stationary results that runs from Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Marx through neoclassical economics to the modern time. The analyses pivot on socioeconomic and historical forces. It is culled from several of his works scattered over half a century. They describe the path that capitalism took,...

p>We present a contribution of Robert Heilbroner to classical stationary results that runs from Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Marx through neoclassical economics to the modern time. The analyses pivot on socioeconomic and historical forces. It is culled from several of his works scattered over half a century. They describe the path that capitalism took,...

Abstract Modigliani entered economics as a pioneer in the interpretation of Keynesian economics. He built a model for Keynesian economics, which he fitted to data. The results at first failed to predict some economic phenomena such as stagflation in the 1970s. The model was re-specified by the Federal Reserve Bank and continues to be useful in the...

This chapter presents analyses of American Exceptionalism from American contributors to the field of economics. They have developed, added, or refined the basic, classical, and neoclassical paradigms in economics. The object is to appraise American contributors who have pioneered or fundamentally contributed to the scientific economic paradigms and...

This chapter looks at political economy and economic law. Before the Marginal Revolution of 1870, the field of economics was largely based on political economy and scholars such as Leon Walras, Stanley Jevons, and Carl Menger who tried to separate politics from economics. The principles of economic law that apply to America are founded on the enlig...

The publication of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America has kindled interest across disciplines to appraise the exceptional nature of U.S. activities. In general, however, all the published works have not focused their analyses from an economic point of view. While economics was for some a “dismal science” following Thomas Carlyle’s charact...

This chapter covers the organization of background materials of American Exceptionalism. It addresses the concepts of American Exceptionalism from the mathematical and statistical perspectives. Alexis de Tocqueville’s ideas are modeled and different works on the subject matter are organized and displayed through a categorical map. The chapter ends...

This chapter provides discussion on the financial theories of American contributors that are exceptional. We visit some names that are popular in economics as well. In those cases where the authors have contributions in many separate disciplines, we compartmentalize them. This chapter presents high theories such as Capital Asset Pricing Model, Arbi...

The bell is still tolling for Samuelson’s works on trade theory. This chapter looks at some models he presented that are still relevant for global trade driven by communication and digital technologies. The models rest on a sound general equilibrium base, for which Samuelson used theoretical and operational perspectives. The models invoke free trad...

The introduction and other previews are available at the google book website:https://books.google.com

This collection gathers some of the greatest minds in economics to discuss their experiences of collaborative research and publication. Nobel Prize winners and other eminent scholars from a representative sample of economics' major sub-disciplines share how and why they came to work primarily in partnerships or on their own, whether naturally or by...

This article presents categorical, functional, and empirical arguments to appraise American Exceptionalism. We find these kinds of appraisals lacking in the literature, especially in areas such as politics, economics, history, and law where American Exceptionalism is most prevalent. First, we employ category theory to show how the structure of the...

Production aspects of the book industry are in a state of perpetual mobility, with printed books facing strong competition from virtual space, Print on Demand (PoD), and e-books technologies. Our empirical analysis attempts to reconcile contrary views about increasing and constant returns to scale, using generally available data and standard econom...

When supply is drastically modified by new technology, it takes on a dimension of shock, resulting in models that contain incomplete information content and more challenging exogenous and endogenous phenomena. We identify new demand parameters for the industry. Consumers can now comparison-shop for bargains and choose between different ways to read...

Distribution channels for books have evolved from small bookstores, to larger superstores, to the more impersonal Internet. Larger bookstores seem to have a dominant position in these activities through mergers and cooperations, yet this does not show up as high concentration for the industry. On the average, the concentration seems to be held in c...

Consumption is a driver of the book industry, and therefore impacts profits as the state of the economy changes. The overall state is that production rates are almost twice as large as consumption rates—but prices remain high, partly because they are traditionally cost-push in nature. The highest-cost aspects of the industry have traditionally been...

International competition requires the estimates of consumer, producer, and welfare optimum in a general equilibrium framework to account for how agents make substitution within countries. The world flow of GDP and FDI concentrates among the three regions of North America, Europe, and Asia. Our analysis proceeds with an eye for free trade according...

The book industry has been marked by four distinct phases of technological advances: the Civil War period, World War I, World War II, and the modern period of high-tech development. Today, bookstores are dwindling and the Internet is the preferred marketplace for both buyers and sellers. Consumers are increasingly reading books in digitized form on...

Books possess inherent characteristics that make them a natural product to buy and sell online. They are easy to ship, inexpensive to warehouse and inventory, easy to review and rate, can be test read, and can easily be searched. The Internet provides a widened audience with low-cost, 24-hour access to a diverse world of selections. The Internet is...

Revolutions in Book Publishing uses dynamic methods to examine the evolution of the industry’s transition from physical place to cyber space, analyzing the latest effects of technological innovations on the industry as well as their influence on distribution channels, market structure, and conduct of the industry. © Lall Ramrattan and Michael Szenb...

Abstract. Guyana was a proving ground for both the capitalist and socialist development ideas in the latter half of the 20th century. We analyze the problems and solutions for those experiments from the point of views of appraising their performances. Traditional theories such as input-output models, sectorial models, and growth models form the win...

Guyana was a proving ground for both the capitalist and socialist development ideas in the latter half of the 20th century. We analyze the problems and solutions for those experiment from the point of views of appraising their performances. Traditional theories such as input-output models, sectorial models, and growth models form the windows for th...

This paper presents a functional framework to study diverse theories of poverty literature. Because of the complex nature of different schools o meta-graph that can relate element in the poverty domain of a function to elements in the egalitarian range of the function. This paper presents such a framework that can compare and contrast different the...

Economics for Alfred Marshall, the last of the classical economists, is concerned with activities in the ordinary business of life. In that milieu, we find conflicts and chaotic behavior among people, firms, and countries, which make them conduct their affairs in different, and sometimes, ironic ways. Economic Ironies Throughout History explores, e...

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has been spreading across the globe. It evolved from a trickle in history to what appears as a spectacle in the modern world. No model is yet available, beyond common sense to account for its centrality in the global process. We can now chart a generalization course of FDI flows across borders. The evolution of the f...

We test for differences between the Great Recession and the Great Depression in the US, using unemployment rates. The test used is ANOVA. The hypothesis advanced is that the early phases of the recession and depression are non-different. At first we reject the hypothesis. But by incorporating government involvement for the two periods, we obtain mo...

The Model This paper proposes a general framework to try to integrate various business cycle models and explain economic fluctuations including the current crisis. The paper first introduces the Classical and Keynesian schools of thought relating to business cycles. Then it presents a framework, focusing on the comparison of its economic interpreta...

Experienced economics editors discuss navigating the world of scholarly journals, with details on submission, reviews, acceptance, rejection, and editorial policy. Editors of academic journals are often the top scholars in their fields. They are charged with managing the flow of hundreds of manuscripts each year—from submission to review to rejecti...

Editors of academic journals are often the top scholars in their fields. They are charged with managing the flow of hundreds of manuscripts each year -- from submission to review to rejection or acceptance -- all while continuing their own scholarly pursuits. Tenure decisions often turn on who has published what in which journals, but editors can a...

Th e former collection of Eminent Economists edited by Michael Szenberg (1992), profi ling twenty-two preeminent economists of the preceding decade, has been successful in whetting the appetite of readers but not sati-ating it. Rather, the idea of such a compilation has created such a niche for itself among economists, readers, and students that it...

We want to study irony on the metaphorical stage because it helps us to understand and know our true selves. If we do not try to understand our true selves, then what we do can backfire on us. One example of this is King Oedipus character in Oedipus Rex, a play by Sophocles. Oedipus was obsessed with finding out who killed his father, Laius. Aristo...

“What is America but beauty queens, millionaires, stupid records, and Hollywood?” asked Adolf Hitler in 1940. As Arthur Herman shows in his wartime history, when Hitler mocked its prowess America had experienced not so much a double-dip as a double-dive depression. Yet, somehow the country’s moribund military–industrial complex was able to respond...

Irony is a way of looking at the stream of human consciousness over historical periods. It is one of the four elements discussed under a figure of speech called trope. Some examples of trope include metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony. They are considered cycles within an age, referring to the age of the gods, the age of heroes, the age of me...

We are predisposed to see anything unknown or outside of our control as dangerous. While the innate instinct for self-preservation ensures our survival, its use beyond the immediate has contributed to human conflict on many levels. The challenge remains to transcend xenophobia and seek out our commonalities instead of exclusively noting our differe...

No one wants to be blamed. In modern society, personal responsibility has been replaced by defensiveness and rationalization. At present, 27 states allow no-fault divorce, introduced in the 1970s, which gives either spouse the right to terminate his or her marriage without providing justification. What follows the no-fault divorce is an epidemic of...

The threat of nuclear attack generates strident criticism of the global refusal to address this existential risk. The desire to curb all unacceptable behaviors, both major and minor, may have at its core individual preservation and not the collective good. Human nature appears to respond most determinately to physical threat rather than giving way...

Contradictory ideologies from eminent personalities have spawned endless debate over the meaning and achievement of success. Varying ideas of what constitutes the embodiment of ultimate success inevitably lead to diverging views. Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish-American industrialist who earned his fortune in the steel industry, is often regarded as th...

In applying ironies to the situation of Jewish citizens in Israel, one cannot avoid confronting the possibility that they are in a position of potential annihilation. In this situation, two resolutions are possible, each branching out to other uncertainties. One resolution calls for the creation of a Palestinian state in the Middle East that will t...

The tendency to worry about potential events or future possibilities causes suffering and depletion of the personal reserves needed for coping with the present reality. Only in a true moment of need can we garner the spiritual, intellectual, and emotional strength necessary to prevail. As Winston Churchill stated, “When I look back on all these wor...

The courage to speak a necessary truth so as to inspire people and motivate change is not exclusive to those who live as they preach. Is it more important to reveal the personal nature of the hypocrite or benefit from the value of the message? Perhaps this type of complex and contradictory personality harbors the attributes necessary for initiating...

In Latin, ironia, and in Greek, eirōneia, stand for irony. The word is used in everyday speech and in philosophical treatises. In language it is listed as a figure of speech, but in philosophy its meaning is harder to fathom. As a working definition, we take irony to mean a pretense, ignorance, or falseness. Irony refers to many ideas—verbal irony,...

Writers from the Judaic persuasion, such as Derrida, speak of silence, a fundamentally unspoken aspect of irony. Carolyn Sharp wrote of this silence as seen in the Jewish Bible, both in terms of deconstruction and reconstruction (Sharp 2009, 7; 11). While Derrida underscored the term “deconstruction,” he rejected the term “reconstruction” because i...

The sequel to Eminent Economists, this book presents the ideas of some of the most outstanding economists of the past half century. The contributors, representing divergent points of the ideological compass, present their life philosophies and reflect on their conceptions of human nature, society, justice, and the source of creative impulse. These...

BreitWilliam and HirschBarry T., Lives of the Laureates: Twenty-three Nobel Economists, fifth edition (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009), pp. 456, $31.95. ISBN 978-0-262-01276-8. Ilse HornKaren , Roads to Wisdom: Conversation with Ten Nobel Laureates in Economics (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2009), pp. 384, £95.00. ISBN 978-1-84844-670-0. - Volume 34 I...

In this paper, we study the behavior of countries and regions in the world that are embarking oti a growth path during the post-Cold War era frotn the IRONIC point of view. We have developed a model that allows countries to look at their historic position of development from either an individtjal point of view or from the viewpoint of belonging to...

The Heart of Teaching Economics: Lessons from Leading Minds, by Simon W. Bowmaker, (Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2010).

We present an assessment of net financial benefits for the U.S. and the European Monetary Union (EMU) against the rest of the world (ROW). While other assessments of regional integration in the Global economy are possible, NAFTA and EMU affects nearly 40 percent of world trade. The assessment results from Computational General Equilibrium (CGE) met...

This paper presents the economic development of Guyana, from several novel analytic technical perspectives. The development spans three dominant regimes in Guyana, starting just before its independence from Great Britain in 1966. The country has moved from a colonial type of development strategy to a modified socialist system and returned to a capi...

This essay reviews the contributions of Paul A. Samuelson, specifically the Neoclassical Synthesis in Macroeconomics, the Factor Price Equalization Theory in Trade, the Surrogate Function in Capital Theory, and the Revealed Preference Theory in Microeconomics. Also covered are the Overlapping Generation Model, the idea of the mixed economy, and ope...

Franco Modigliani, the 1980 Nobel laureate, was a leader in Keynesian economics. He has moved Keynesian theory to the empirical forefront by constructing the first Federal Reserve Board macroeconometric model in the country. Modigliani has further expanded the Keynesian consumption function in the direction of his life cycle hypothesis (LCH), and t...

This paper attempts to address the essential legacy of Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) spread over a broad range of subjects. Galbraith is a forerunner of the most popular, imaginative and idea creating economic writers of the last century. His economic eyes were the first to discern the historic and institutional forces behind the countervailing pow...

The Hindu doctrine has broad covering laws for the description and management of crises. Economic swings are covered under a theory of long cycles that parallels the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron ages of the West. Order breaks down in each cycle, and society is reconstituted anew. The individuals and ruler produce, accumulate, and distribute wea...

This introductory chapter looks at the various ways in which Paul Samuelson was appraised by the contributors. The features that stand out bear close correspondence with scientific, mathematical techniques, and the genius of a craftsman. Paradigm, scientific research program, anthology, and epistemological viewpoints can be read into the program. S...

This book presents the scientific works of Paul Samuelson, the leading neoclassical economist, which would attract research and study in the 21st century. The subject matter includes his '...scientific work through which he has developed static and dynamic economic theory and actively contributed to raising the level of analysis in economic science...

Bhagwati, Jagdish. Termites in the Trading System: How Preferential Agreements Undermine Free Trade, Oxford University Press, 2008.