Deirdre N. McCloskey Knihy

kapitoly z populární ekonomie s úvodním zamyšlením Deirdre McCloskeyové Proč jsou obézní dívky svolnější k rizikovému sexu než jejich atraktivnější vrstevnice? Proč fyzicky atraktivní lidé dostávají půjčku na nižší úrok než ti méně vzhlední? Proč se metrosexualita finančně vyplácí a proč se modroocí muži ze severu Evropy v baru zpijí spíše než Španěl či Ital? I na tyto otázky dnes hledají odpovědi ekonomové – a kniha Proč je vzduch zadarmo a panenství drahé je plná takových odpovědí. Ekonomie je často vnímána jako potřebná, nicméně poněkud „sucharská“ věda. Lukáš Kovanda nechce bořit mýty. Možná je jen lehce nabourat. Cílem jeho „učebnice pop-ekonomie“, která se dočkala již druhého vydání, je dokázat, že ekonomie je vlastně docela zajímavá a třeba i vzrušující věda, která má hodně co říci k celé škále společenských otázek. „Kovandovy črty na pomezí ekonomie, sociální psychologie, sociobiologie a antropologie vyplňují citelnou mezeru v domácí popularizační literatuře, jež zoufale zaostává za produkcí zejména anglosaskou, která nás sice svým šarmem oslňuje v překladech jako Špekonomie (Dubner a Levitt) či Proč muži neposlouchají a ženy neumí číst v mapách (Allan a Barbara Peasovi), ale postrádá autenticitu domácího původu.“ —Cyril Höschl, ředitel Psychiatrického centra Praha Vydalo nakladatelství BizBooks v Brně roku 2012 ve společnosti Albatros Media. 2. vydání

Introduction The Argument in Brief -- Economics Is in Scientific Trouble -- An Antique, Unethical, and Badly Measured Behaviorism Doesn't Yield Good Economic Science or Good Politics -- Economics Needs to Get Serious about Measuring the Economy -- The Number of Unmeasured "Imperfections" Is Embarrassingly Long -- Historical Economics Can Measure Them, Showing Them to Be Small -- The Worst of Orthodox Positivism Lacks Ethics and Measurement -- Neoinstitutionalism Shares in the Troubles -- Even the Best of Neoinstitutionalism Lacks Measurement -- And "Culture," or Mistaken History, Will Not Repair It -- That Is, Neoinstitutionalism, Like the Rest of Behavioral Positivism, Fails as History and as Economics -- As It Fails in Logic and in Philosophy -- Neoinstitutionalism, in Short, Is Not a Scientific Success -- Humanomics Can Save the Science -- But It's Been Hard for Positivists to Understand Humanomics -- Yet We Can Get a Humanomics -- And Although We Can't Save Private Max U -- We Can Save an Ethical Humanomics.

"There's little doubt that most humans today are better off than their forebears. Stunningly so, the economist and historian Deirdre McCloskey argues in the concluding volume of her trilogy celebrating the oft-derided virtues of the bourgeoisie. The poorest of humanity, McCloskey shows, will soon be joining the comparative riches of Japan and Sweden and Botswana. Why? Most economists--from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to Thomas Piketty--say the Great Enrichment since 1800 came from accumulated capital. McCloskey disagrees, fiercely. "Our riches," she argues, "were made not by piling brick on brick, bank balance on bank balance, but by piling idea on idea." Capital was necessary, but so was the presence of oxygen. It was ideas, not matter, that drove"trade-tested betterment." Nor were institutions the drivers. The World Bank orthodoxy of "add institutions and stir" doesn't work, and didn't. McCloskey builds a powerful case for the initiating role of ideas--ideas for electric motors and free elections, of course, but more deeply the bizarre and liberal ideas of equal liberty and dignity for ordinary folk. Liberalism arose from theological and political revolutions in northwest Europe, yielding a unique respect for betterment and its practitioners, and upending ancient hierarchies. Commoners were encouraged to have a go, and the bourgeoisie took up the Bourgeois Deal, and we were all enriched. Few economists or historians write like McCloskey--her ability to invest the facts of economic history with the urgency of a novel, or of a leading case at law, is unmatched. She summarizes modern economics and modern economic history with verve and lucidity, yet sees through to the really big scientific conclusion. Not matter, but ideas. Big books don't come any more ambitious, or captivating, than Bourgeois Equality"--Publisher's description

A valuable short guide for mastering the craft of academic writing! Students and young professionals who care about direct, clear expression should read this lucid, delightful gem by an author who practices what she advises. McCloskey s systematic treatment provides a range of insights and practical advice for better writing by scholars in every field.

1907. The book begins: In a small drawing-room, whose windows looked out upon a wintry Boston street, three people were sitting. It was a room rather empty and undecorated, but its intense warmth seemed in some degree to furnish it; one couldn't associate austerity with such an almost tropical temperature. There were rows of books on white shelves, a pale Donatello cast on the wall, and two fine bronze vases filled with roses on the mantelpiece. Over the roses hung a portrait in oils, very sleek and very accurate, of a commanding old gentleman in uniform, painted by a well-known German painter, and all about the room were photographs of young women, most of them young mothers, with smooth heads and earnest faces, holding babies. Outside, the snow was heaped high along the pavements and thickly ridged the roofs and lintels. After the blizzard the sun was shining and all the white glittered. The national colors, to a patriotic imagination, were pleasingly represented by the red, white and blue of the brick houses, the snow, and the vivid sky above.

Exploring the intersection of economics and philosophy, this book emphasizes that economics is both a science and a human discipline. It combines mathematical rigor with literary flair, making complex concepts accessible to a broad audience. Through a witty and engaging style, it serves as a guide to economic philosophy, encouraging readers to understand the nuances of the field without requiring specialized knowledge.

The big economic story of our times is not the Great Recession. It is how China and India began to embrace neoliberal ideas of economics and attributed a sense of dignity and liberty to the bourgeoisie they had denied for so long. This book discusses seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe to reconsider the birth of the Industrial Revolution.

Economics is not a field that is known for good writing. Charts, yes. Sparkling prose, no. Except, that is, when it comes to Deirdre Nansen McCloskey. Her conversational and witty yet always clear style is a hallmark of her classic works of economic history, enlivening the dismal science and engaging readers well beyond the discipline. And now she’s here to share the secrets of how it’s done. Economical Writing is itself economical: a collection of thirty-five pithy rules for making your writing clear, concise, and effective. Proceeding from big-picture ideas to concrete strategies for improvement at the level of the paragraph, sentence, or word, McCloskey shows us that good writing, after all, is not just a matter of taste—it’s a product of adept intuition and a rigorous revision process. Debunking stale rules, warning us that “footnotes are nests for pedants,” and offering an arsenal of readily applicable tools and methods, she shows writers of all levels of experience how to rethink the way they approach their work, and gives them the knowledge to turn mediocre prose into magic. At once efficient and digestible, hilarious and provocative, Economical Writing lives up to its promise. With McCloskey as our guide, it’s impossible not to see how any piece of writing—on economics or any other subject—can be a pleasure to read.