Here for a Good Time, Not a Long Time: Asset Managers at the Infrastructure Party

as Henry Simons (University of Chicago) and Joseph Schumpeter—neither known for their radicalism!—will prove most compelling to those interested in the history of economic ideas. These essays illustrate, among other things, just how wide ranging among economists was the concern with finance, crisis, and capitalist development through most of the twentieth century. Just as valuable are Whalen’s observations on how Minsky can help us think about what he calls an “Economic policy for the real world”— and how to think concretely about the urgent task of reforming the financial system. Running through all the essays in the book is Whalen’s conviction that the needs of working people must always be placed at the center of economic analysis. Ultimately, however, it may be the case that only a sustained working-class movement can force labor’s issues onto the agenda of economic research—and, more importantly, of economic policy. The foolishness that marks so much of the modern economics profession did after all emerge in the context of union decline. From that perspective, the fate of the new wave of heterodox economics may depend as much as anything on what becomes of the exciting organizing developments of recent years. In any case, Reforming Capitalism for the Common Good is an invaluable resource for everyone interested in what that field could and should look like in the future.