brilliant, yet abstruse argument on the misconceptions of classical economics

Review of The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time by Karl Polanyi

This is a classic critique of capitalism in historical perspective. While the ideas can be extremely interesting, it requires great effort. Nonetheless, I think that most of the arguments are sound, even though the predictions at the end of the book - of the imminent demise of market capitalism –proved premature.

The book has four basic ideas. First, cap…