The Golden Calf: Economism and American Policy

American politicians and policymakers tend to hold certain truths as self-evident—that the “free market” should be permitted to control as much of our lives and society as possible, and that the proper role of government is to get out of the market’s way. In this book, Howard Brody challenges these so-called truths. He shows first that this way of thinking constitutes a belief system called economism. He next demonstrates that while economism claims to be a set of hard-headed scientific facts, it actually functions as a system of religious or quasi-religious beliefs. He finally traces the historical roots of economism to reveal that it takes many of its core ideas from two religious sources—evangelicalism in nineteenth century England, and the “Protestant Ethic” that evolved from Calvinist and Puritan beliefs in America in the eighteenth century. Brody explains that since economism is posing as a scientific, factual account of the world but actually is not, deception and stealth necessarily accompany economism wherever it rears its head. After giving examples of the tragic effects that policies promoted by economism have had on American life and culture, Brody discusses what we can do to rescue our future from this misguided way of thinking.