Joseph A. Schumpeter
Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy
Routledge, 2008
Aperçu
Economist Joseph A. Schumpeter coined the term “creative destruction” in describing capitalism.
Recommendation
Some consider Joseph A. Schumpeter the greatest economist of the 20th century. Only an intellect of his towering stature would be able to present a case that, while Marx was wrong about how capitalism would collapse, he was probably correct that it eventually would. Schumpeter also contends that socialism may eclipse free market economies, news he feels society should greet with angst. He believed that capitalism’s doom would proceed not from a revolution by an angry proletariat but rather as a result of successes giving rise to a class of elites who would gradually institute systems of central control.
Summary
About the Author
Joseph A. Schumpeter was born in 1883 in the present-day Czech Republic. He served as Austria's minister of finance from 1919 to 1920, as president of the Biederman Bank for the next four years and as a professor at the University of Bonn from 1925 to 1932, when he relocated to Harvard. In 1933, he became the founding president of the Econometric Society. He taught at Harvard until his death in 1950. His magnum opus, History of Economic Analysis, was published posthumously in 1954.
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