New Ideas From Dead Economists by Todd G. Bucholz

This book summarised the key concepts created by influential and major economists from the father of economics ,Adam Smith, to recent economists who have helped to solve economic disasters like John Maynard Keynes. Bucholz has created an excellent guide to the ideas and theories of great economists and analysing their works to understand their true meaning.

The most prominent of the economists, Bucholz analysed was Karl Marx, who could be considered as the father of Communism. Marx created the Communist Manifesto which outlined the basic ideologies of Communism and their significance, however Marx also wrote another work labelled: ‘Capital’ which criticised Capitalism. Although, the extraordinary part of this work was that he eventually defined the end of Capitalism, which at the time in the 1800s seemed impossible, yet the recent economic disasters resemble greatly the type of problems Marx pointed out. Bucholz has revealed the worrying predictions of Marx and how they could be true, regarding the disaster most Capitalist countries now are in.

Another prophecy that was outlined, was that of Malthus. Malthus was an economist but also a population expert and he claimed that population increased geometrically while food supplies increased arithmetically which would inevitably mean that humans would begin to suffer due to exhausted food supplies. However, he was obviously wrong as this is not the case, yet Malthus raised a serious issue. There are some resources on Earth that do increase at a rate slower than humans do, such as non-renewable energy sources. Therefore, perhaps humans will suffer due to exhausted resources and not food, as was explained by Bucholz.

Furthermore, there were many other ideas of famous economists, that Bucholz illustrated in a clear and precise manner, including: David Ricardo and his views on Free Trade, Adam Smith and his theory of the ‘invisible hand’, the ideas of taxation from John Stuart Mill, the creation of the theory of Marginalism by Alfred Marshall and the methods John Maynard Keynes used to help solve the problems of economies around the time of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

In conclusion, Bucholz has compacted all these ideas from famous economists within one book, that could perhaps be used to help the current economic disaster. From the father of Communism to the father of Capitalism, Bucholz ensures he has presented the views of the most famous economists.