The Original Error, by Mathew Coakley
Why Macroeconomics Keeps on Failing
Why are there recessions?
Why can firms earn persistently high profits?
Why do wages depend so dramatically on where people live?
The Original Error argues that these are not separate puzzles. They arise from a foundational mistake in how economics understands production.
That mistake has endured for two centuries, surviving successive revolutions in economic thought even as the discipline made genuine advances. Philosopher Mathew Coakley traces its path through that history to explain why increasingly sophisticated macroeconomic models continue to encounter the same unresolved problems.
He then shows how correcting the error offers new explanations of how firms are organized, how income is distributed and why recessions recur. The argument proceeds from clearly stated assumptions, step by step, allowing readers to assess its conclusions for themselves.
Written for thoughtful non-specialists as well as economists and philosophers, The Original Error is a bold investigation into the ideas shaping our understanding of crises, growth and inequality.
Something structural has been going on. And going wrong.
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