What is Wrong with Phelps’s Analysis of the West’s Economies?

Abstract

Edmund Phelps argues against present day capitalism and economic theory because the former has lost it dynamism and the latter has ignored the human spirit. He provides little evidence that things are getting worse and ignores how economic takes into account human desire for autonomy and creativity. Phelps looks fondly on his liberal arts education, but his reason for doing so is slipshod and unworthy of a Nobel Prize winner.