Introduction
Ļis book’s title is the same as the newly chosen title of chapterȆ, “Is
the Market a Test of Truth and Beauty?”Ļat chapter, along with the
one before it, questions a dangerously false argument for the free-market
economy sometimes made by its supposed friends. Ļeir argument threat-
ens to discredit, by association, the powerful and valid case for the mar-
ket. Asked whether the market is a test of truth and beauty—of excel-
lence—Ayn Rand would presumably give the same answer as mine: “No,
of course not!” Consider her hero ofĻe Fountainhead, Howard Roark.
Political economy is the area of overlap among economics, political
science, and philosophy. Beyond its positive content, political economy
does bear on policy but not only on policy; it is far from a hodge-podge of
different people’s policy prejudices. Economics, when not disregarded, is
obviously relevant to policy. So are philosophy and psychology, as when
they underlie doctrines such as redistributionism and egalitarianism. Pol-
icy can affect economics. More exactly, a policy proposal may help clar-
ify a strand of economic analysis even when, considering side-effects, the
author does not actually recommend the policy; “Land, Money, and Cap-
ital Formation,” chapterȀȁ, provides an example. Regrettably, though,
policy-driven economists do exist who start with their or their employ-
ers’ preferred policies and then twist their analysis into supporting them.
Writings in political economy, being interdisciplinary, typically omit
the deep technicalities of any specific field. Most of this book’s chapters
are semipopular pieces that the attentive “general reader” should under-
stand. Ļey deal with intersecting fields rather than with advanced details
of any one field. Left out of this book, then, are any of my relatively tech-
nical writings, as on monetary theory and international economics. A few
semitechnical chapters, including numbersȀandȀȁ, come close to mak-
ing an exception. ChapterȀȁcontributes to a field of particular interest
to Austrian economists, capital theory. Yet it too strives for nontechnical
language.
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