Peter Dorman wrote:
Stretton's book is interesting but very idiosyncratic -- not suitable for
the
sort of course I want to teach. For me, there are two things I'm trying to
accomplish, to improve student's understanding of how economies work, and to
increase their ability to critique mainstream economics as an intellectual
and
political force. That's why I'm happy to use an orthodox text, as long as
it
isn't too counterproductive pedagogically.
MK writes: I'm not sure how Stretton does not fit your criteria. I read his
book as trying to accomplish just those aims. And it would be a strange
orthodoxy that dispensed with AS/AD, as you would wish it to do. Of course
the content may be too broad in coverage for your purposes.
In a recent RRPE John McDermott brought to attention Robert Guttmann's
neglected "How Credit-Money Shapes the Economy" (M.E. Sharpe, 1994). While
it's probably not at all what you are looking for, its treatment of money as
endogenous enables Guttmann to offer a very good economic history of the US
to the present. It's a lot more convincing than most macro.
Michael K.
