Talking to Walls: The Socialist Calculation Debate that Never Really Was One

In his book «Socialism, Economic calculation and Entrepreneur-ship» Dr. Jesus Huerta de Soto (2010) gives an account of the his-tory of the socialist calculation debate, in which he shows very clearly why the political left today still believes a socialist econ-omy is possible. The popular wisdom in those circles, namely, is that in 1936, Oskar Lange (Lange, October 1936: 53–71 & February 1937) succeeded in refuting Mises’ claim that central planning could not work because the information that is needed to draw up such plans can only be generated in a free market. This paper wants to show that nothing could be further from the truth: Lange never answered Mises’ fundamental challenge, nor was there any other socialist economist that has been able to refute his central argument. A lot of straw men died, but Mises’ funda-mental argument lives.

THE IDEAS OF STUART CHASE ON WASTE AND INEFFICIENCY

This paper discusses Stuart Chase and his thoughts on social accounting and the economics of waste and inefficiency. An evolutionary socialist, economist, and CPA, Chase saw waste as the major socioeconomic problem of our time, and argued that industry, the government, and the public could do much to overcome this problem. He suggested an optimal balance between laissez-faire and governmental regulation as a remedy for the inefficiencies of our economic system.