Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
How much of modern economics is shaped by religion?
@harvard economist Benjamin Friedman, author of "The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth" and "Religion and the Rise of Capitalism," traces the surprising influence of theology on economics from Adam Smith and David Hume to today’s policy debates.
Friedman explains how Enlightenment-era shifts away from Calvinism enabled Smith’s optimistic vision of markets, why economists have misrepresented Smith as a prophet of laissez-faire, and how religion continues to shape American views on inequality, democracy, and public policy.
He also reflects on the decline of trust in expertise today—reminding us that skepticism of professionals isn’t new, but part of recurring cycles in American life.
Learn more about his work at https://bfriedman.scholars.harvard.edu/
How much of modern economics is shaped by religion?
@harvard economist Benjamin Friedman, author of "The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth" and "Religion and the Rise of Capitalism," traces the surprising influence of theology on economics from Adam Smith and David Hume to today’s policy debates.
Friedman explains how Enlightenment-era shifts away from Calvinism enabled Smith’s optimistic vision of markets, why economists have misrepresented Smith as a prophet of laissez-faire, and how religion continues to shape American views on inequality, democracy, and public policy.
He also reflects on the decline of trust in expertise today—reminding us that skepticism of professionals isn’t new, but part of recurring cycles in American life.
Learn more about his work at https://bfriedman.scholars.harvard.edu/
![The Web [Axel Leijonhufvud]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l6JLXQc-Mus/mqdefault.jpg "The Web [Axel Leijonhufvud]
What is your first association when somebody talks to you about the economy?
Axel Leijonhufvud was one of the most creative and perspicacious macroeconomists of the last century. He became famous early in his life for his contention that the Keynesian Economics being taught and understood at that time was a serious misinterpretation of Keyness ideas. Instead of the emphasis on inflexible wages and prices as being central, Keynes, he argued, was focused on the failure of intertemporal coordination. Taking that challenge into consideration required a different way of looking at the economy and theorizing disequilibrium. As a committed supporter of the history of economic thought, he was singularly aware of the problems of taking a wrong path intellectually a mistake that could lead to years of misguided work. And indeed, that wrong turn, away from the fertile ground of disequilibrium macroeconomics did occur, as the profession moved away from it to what he may have seen as an academic and theoretical dead end. His latter career was devoted to finding more meaningful and generative foundations for dealing with the deeper issues of macroeconomic and monetary stability. In the last decade of his life he was a founding member of the Institute for New Economic Thinking and a key part of its academic council.
In this animation, taken from his speech at the INET plenary in Berlin in 2012, he describes the process by which macroeconomic instability is generated. We invite you to see it and to explore the many other contributions of this true intellectual giant.
Read his papers and more in our archive of his work:
http://newth.ink/axel
Professor Leijonhufvud speaking at INET Berlin 2012:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90zLGjQr6jo
Axels Masters Series interview playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmtuEaMvhDZbnT7kpLB1ilBhhbWlenPOC
Produced by Matthew Kulvicki & Nick Alpha")
![Planetary Boundaries - [ECO]NOMICS Part 3](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nnEU3RVvsBM/mqdefault.jpg "Planetary Boundaries - [ECO]NOMICS Part 3
Mainstream economics ignores the impact of economic activity on the natural environment. Ecological economics recognizes that the human economy exists in a larger planetary system, and that destroying the natural environment will affect future well-being.
In [ECO]NOMICS part 3, Professor Schor shows how human economic activity has exceeded the reproductive or sustainable capacity of the planet over the past half-century. Ecosystems have been worn down by deforestation, destruction of species, depletion of material reserves and destabilization of the climate. Humans are destroying these ecosystems at a dizzying, unsustainable and accelerating rate. Capitalism has certain features - most notably pressure to grow - that make a change of trajectory all but impossible in this context. Conventional economic policies are lured by the hope they can still maintain economic growth while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions. But Professor Schor shows how decoupling growth from emissions is a mirage. Wealthy countries cannot grow their way to sustainability. We need to enact structural changes and consider alternative approaches that reduce climate disruption and improve well-being.
Part 4 will be available May 18, 2022
Learn more at https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/videos/eco-nomics
Credits: Juliet Schor, Matthew Kulvicki, Nick Alpha, Gonçalo Fonseca, Kurt Semm")
