It is a joy to read that George Akerlof and Robert Shiller’s Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2009) enthusiastically upholds John Maynard Keynes’ key insight that little would ever be accomplished without “a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction” (“An Economic Bestiary,” March 28, 2009). That is, his insight that no bridge, skyscraper, or ocean liner would ever be built on the basis of “cold calculation” alone. Sadly, economists have veered toward cold calculation in the wake of World War II in spite of Keynes’ admonishment shaped during the Great Depression. Akerlof and Shiller therefore offer a fresh departure for the profession. Stranded as it is in the current economic crisis, which it finds baffling, it needs all the optimism it can get. And what better start than good old animal spirits?

Addendum (December 3, 2009)

Many months later, I stumbled upon Akerlof and Shiller’s book in a Zagreb bookstore. It is a joy to read, too. At long last, there is a coherent attempt to put this notion, which comes from the Latin expression spiritus animalis for “of the mind,” at the center of economic thought. This is where temptation, resentment, speculation, or audacity finally come to the fore when human behavior is concerned. Anyhow, the book has already paid off intellectually. Having finished reading the Preface, I jotted the following words under the last paragraph: “It just crossed my mind that the art market could be useful in ‘explaining’ all other markets—for it is the ‘craziest’ one of all!” Yes, the art market is surely closer than any other to Keynes’ key insight.