3,422 works, 150 years of economic thought. Each one summarized and searchable, with cited passages inside.
Can reduced consumption impoverish society when it finances future production? In this 1945 article, Frank Albert Fetter tests Lauderdale’s oversaving theory against the distinction between present expenditure and accumulated productive wealth. His criticism turns on what Lauderdale’s account leaves out: future yields from investment, the gradual decline in returns to additional capital, and the tax liabilities extinguished by public debt repayment. Fetter also gives the dispute a political edge, interpreting Lauderdale’s attack on saving as an argument against Britain’s sinking fund and as protective of creditors facing lower reinvestment yields. The result is a pointed encounter between economic reasoning and fiscal interests, showing why temporary disruption, reduced consumption, and permanent loss of wealth cannot simply be treated as equivalent.
A price can explain what someone will pay without establishing what serves their well-being. In this December 1920 sequel article, Frank Albert Fetter challenges the claim that contemporary economics is converging on money and prices as its governing framework. His criticism is pointed because he defends price theory as a legitimate analytical undertaking while refusing to make market valuations standards of welfare. Reading Marshall and Mitchell against their own qualifications, he exposes the tension between monetary precision and humanitarian purpose. Capitalized property rights sharpen the problem: their value may depend on restricting services rather than satisfying needs. The article offers a concrete way to distinguish explaining economic choices from judging their consequences, without discarding the tools of price analysis.