A minha formação de base é engenharia química, não é economia. No entanto, ao longo de mais de 32 anos de experiência de contacto com empresas fui desenvolvendo o meu próprio pensamento, muitas vezes ao arrepio daquilo que é o pensamento económico do mainstream.
Algumas dessas reflexões são acerca do truque alemão e da doença anglo-saxónica. Ver, por exemplo, aqui:
- O truque alemão e não só ou
- Portanto, cuidado com pedintes que ameaçam sair da União Europeia
- Consequências da radioclubização ou os muggles à solta
Entretanto, em "The Visionary Realism of German Economics: From the Thirty Years' War to the Cold War" encontro:
"While English economists tended to see the world through the lenses of long-distance traders, German economists often saw the world through the lenses of tax collectors of small states. The English emphasis on trade and barter, rather than on production, still today continues to be a key characteristic of mainstream economics....David Ricardo’s 1817 Principles of Economics— with an even more extreme focus on barter rather than production as the determining factor in the international economy — moved economics to a much higher level of abstraction. As opposed to the German language tradition right, left and center— Joseph Schumpeter, Karl Marx and Rudolf Hilferding, respectively— Ricardo did not separate the financial sector from the real economy. This came to limit today’s understanding of financial crises.Ricardo’s foundation of international trade theory as represented by the barter of qualitatively identical labor hours, void of any qualities, is in my opinion perhaps the largest barrier to our present understanding of two main problems in the world economy today: poverty and large- scale migration....from its very inception, German economics was that of a backward nation attempting to catch up with its wealthier neighbours....Second, German economics has consistently, through the centuries, seen the economy from a different vantage point with different metaphors: essentially from the point of view of production rather than trade, and operating at a much lower level of abstraction than today’s mainstream economics and its predecessors. Third, the scope of economics in the German tradition has been much wider than in the Anglo- Saxon mainstream. Factors such as geography and history, technology and technical change, government and governance, and social problems and their remedies, have all been central to the approach since its very inception....German economics is above all an Erfahrungswissenschaft — a science based on experience. There is little metaphysical speculation and high abstractions; many considered the economic theories of David Ricardo to be an example of ‘metaphysical speculation’. Strukturzusammenhänge — structural coherence and connections — among economic factors, and between the economy and the rest of society, are not only obvious, understanding such connections is also most important for both economic theory and policy. Synergies would be one example of this. Compared to Anglo- Saxon economics, the German approach has therefore always been holistic....Praxisnähe — closeness to reality [Moi ici: Como não recordar Anteu e a sua perdição] — and relevance have been key criteria for academic quality in this tradition. There is also a fundamental understanding that important economic factors are irreducible to mere figures and symbols. A frequent criticism is that standard economics often produces qualitätslose Grössen, quantities that are devoid of any qualitative understanding. Even the most accurate and comprehensive description of a human being by all his or her quantifiable aspects — height, weight, percentage of water and trace minerals — would leave out the key factor in economic development, what Friedrich Nietzsche called Geist and Willenskapital: the wit and will of mankind."
