David P. Goldman

From October 2001. Nothing to add. share.google/UxqLHmxUFmWyhke…

Addressing the Oswald Spengler Society in Frankfurt after receiving its biannual Spengler Prize.

Farewell, Ned Phelps: My friend of many years Edmund Phelps passed away peacefully over the weekend at the ripe age of 92, honored with a Nobel Prize and the gratitude of generations of students. It was a privilege to know him. He was a towering figure in a generation of giants who tackled fundamental problems of economics, a field that turned trivial during the past twenty years. In 2023 I reviewed his last book, "My Journeys in Economic Theory," at Law and Liberty: "Nobel Prizes in economics are usually awarded to old men whose productive years are behind them. Edmund Phelps, the 2006 Nobel Laureate in the field, is an exception. With the publication of his book Mass Flourishing in 2013, Phelps proposed an entirely new way to think about economics. Periods of extraordinary economic growth, he argued, cannot be explained by monetary or fiscal policy, scientific discovery, entrepreneurship, or any of the standard categories of economic research. Instead, exceptional growth stems from the willingness of the whole of society to adopt innovation, take risks, and embrace uncertainty. I can think of no other octogenarian economist who advanced such a bold and original thesis." lawliberty.org/book-review/t…