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CONVENTIONAL ECONOMIC THEORY — A CRITIQUE HIGHLIGHTING FLAWS IN AMERICAN STYLE CAPITALISM

JOERGEN OERSTROEM MOELLER

Institute of South East Asian Studies, 30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace, Pasir Panjang, Singapore 119614, Singapore

Singapore Management University & Copenhagen Business School, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Diplomatic Academy, Singapore

https://doi.org/10.1142/S0217590811004067Cited by:3 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

For 200 years, we have lived with capitalism in its American style forged easy access to raw materials. Despite entering an era of scarcities, economics is still anchored in growth and distribution theories reflecting the world of plenty. Production theory does not recognize the significance of sharing of knowledge and group behavior introduced by ICT. Consumption theory is still about buying 'more', neglecting the element of uncertainty. Competition has been eradicated and replaced by a limited number of gigantic corporations. Only recently has economics started to go interdisciplinary to incorporate psychology and brain research to explain behavior when confronted with economic choices and the difference between individual and group behavior.

Based upon a presentation February 3, 2010 at a seminar at Economic Growth Center, Division of Economics, School of Humanities and Social Services, Nanyang Technological University. My book 'How Asia can Shape the World', published in 2011, offers an elaborated version of these thoughts with subsequent application to Asian economies.

Keywords:

JEL: A12, A13

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