{"title":"Islamic economics: Intertemporal prices, interest rates and discount rates","authors":"Gerald R Steele","doi":"10.1111/ecaf.12659","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecaf.12659","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The discussion draws upon core aspects of microeconomics and macroeconomics. Relevant comparisons are between (<i>a</i>) analyses as respectively introduced by Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes, and (<i>b</i>) analyses constrained by Islamic religious law (Sharia) as interpreted and developed by Islamic scholars.</p><p>The views here reported reflect conversations at the conference ‘Mainstreaming Islamic Economics in Islamic Banking and Finance’ held at the Markfield Institute of Higher Education, Leicestershire, UK, in July 2023. The discussion also draws from Steele (<span>2022</span>) and Koehler (<span>2023</span>).</p><p>The ‘classical’ economic distinctions of the eighteenth century between the economically productive contributions of labourers, landowners, and capitalists were superseded in the late nineteenth century by the analytical approach of ‘neoclassical’ economics. The focus then became supply, demand, and the costs incurred in producing and sending goods and services to market. With production and distribution occurring over periods of varying length, payments forthcoming further into the future generally have a lower commercial value than payments immediately received. That distinction is systematised in the valuation of discounted cash flows. In broad terms, as labour-intensive methods generally deliver goods promptly to market, capital-intensive methods deliver greater volumes over extended periods.</p><p>In making appropriate adjustments, as directed by competitive discount rates, cost-efficient investments are achievable: for example, those relating to hiring premises, purchasing materials and machinery, recruiting labour and marketing products. As discount rates fall/rise, optimal readjustments to those components can be made. Motivated by competition, returns from production periods of different length eventually equalise. Such systematic adjustments underpin Austrian business cycle theory (see Steele, <span>1988</span>, <span>1992</span>).</p><p>Under a planned (state-controlled) system, dirigiste interventions might set production targets. In a competitive free-enterprise economy, decisions taken by consumers and businesses determine market prices and sales. Large profits and disastrous failures are features common to both. The general relevance is (<i>a</i>) that shortages and surpluses are indicative of suboptimal adjustments, and (<i>b</i>) that all investments are intertemporal activities, where the application of appropriate discount rates allows rational evaluations of prospective returns across different production periods.</p><p>Schematically, the mathematical presentations of interest rates and discount rates are conceptually equivalent: one forward-looking, the other backward-looking. Together, it is those presentations that indicate optimal deployments of labour, capital and other productive inputs. Yet, where time per se is generally relevant to profitability, it is only in respect of the payment of intere","PeriodicalId":44825,"journal":{"name":"ECONOMIC AFFAIRS","volume":"44 3","pages":"582-588"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ecaf.12659","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142435031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Monitoring the state or the market: From laissez faire to market fundamentalism By Vito Tanzi. Cambridge University Press. 2023. 232 pp. £70.00 (hbk). ISBN: 978-100943447. £22.99 (pbk). ISBN: 978-1009434478. £21.84 (ebk). ISBN: 978-1009434430","authors":"Carlo Stagnaro","doi":"10.1111/ecaf.12635","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecaf.12635","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44825,"journal":{"name":"ECONOMIC AFFAIRS","volume":"44 2","pages":"423-425"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141487945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The economics of China's Holistic View of National Security: A preliminary assessment","authors":"Kerry Liu","doi":"10.1111/ecaf.12646","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecaf.12646","url":null,"abstract":"<p>From December 2020, China made a significant shift towards prioritising security over development. This study delves into the economic repercussions of China's security policy, specifically the Holistic View of National Security. The evolution of this security policy is analysed utilising Baidu Index data. The components of the policy, encompassing political, economic, financial and technology security, are scrutinised, with the economic burdens it imposes being highlighted. China's recent legislative measures concerning national security are assessed, with their potential to hamper economic growth. The adverse effects of the security policy on the economy are uncovered by examining foreign direct investment data, industry sector trends, and the responses of the largest listed firms.</p>","PeriodicalId":44825,"journal":{"name":"ECONOMIC AFFAIRS","volume":"44 2","pages":"218-244"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141487946","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pox Romana: The plague that shook the Roman world By Colin Elliott, Princeton University Press. 2024. pp. 328. £28.00 (hbk). ISBN: 978-0691219158. £19.60 (ebk). ISBN: 978-0691220697","authors":"Mark Koyama","doi":"10.1111/ecaf.12639","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecaf.12639","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44825,"journal":{"name":"ECONOMIC AFFAIRS","volume":"44 2","pages":"426-428"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488281","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Covid-19 and Sweden: What constitutes success? A response to Fredrik Andersson and Lars Jonung","authors":"David Goldsmith","doi":"10.1111/ecaf.12630","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecaf.12630","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44825,"journal":{"name":"ECONOMIC AFFAIRS","volume":"44 2","pages":"374-375"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The ‘means’ and the ‘ends’ of economic calculation: The missing aspect of an epochal dispute","authors":"Dmitrii Trubnikov","doi":"10.1111/ecaf.12640","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecaf.12640","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Current technological advances have revived the old socialist calculation debate. While the arguments on the socialist side appear to be backed by exciting technological developments, the pro-market camp still mainly relies on the classical thinking of the Austrian school. A reasonable way to reinvigorate the free-market thesis is to look at the ends of economic calculations, intentionally overlooked during the classical period of the debate. A valuable supplement to the contemporary pro-market position could be found in the ordoliberal vision that emphasised the interdependence of various spheres and the power problem.</p>","PeriodicalId":44825,"journal":{"name":"ECONOMIC AFFAIRS","volume":"44 2","pages":"281-293"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Liberalism's last man: Hayek in the age of political capitalism By Vikash Yadav, University of Chicago Press. 2023. pp. 288. $35.00 (hbk). ISBN: 978-0226821474. $34.99 (ebk). ISBN: 978-0226827360","authors":"Joshua Bowden","doi":"10.1111/ecaf.12653","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecaf.12653","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44825,"journal":{"name":"ECONOMIC AFFAIRS","volume":"44 2","pages":"439-440"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Economic Affairs Applied Research Workshop 2024 Advancing a Classical Liberal Understanding of the Agenda for a Free Society","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/ecaf.12658","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecaf.12658","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44825,"journal":{"name":"ECONOMIC AFFAIRS","volume":"44 2","pages":"203"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}