Economics Redefined

• Author: W. Haslyn Parris
• Pages: 221-235

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Economics Redefined

This paper contains nine heresies – assertions flying in the face of currently

accepted wisdom. Accordingly, it must be kept short, if it is not to give too

much offence.

On 1 October 1939, Winston Churchill made a speech in London in

which he said: “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is riddle

wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key

is Russian national interest.”

I think that statement is as apt today, in December 1991, with respect to

the affairs of Russia, as it was in October 1939. But what is more remarkable

is that if we were to replace “Russia” by the concept “the economy,” the

statement would be true of almost every economy. In particular, I argue that

it is true of the Guyana economy, and will continue to be true.

I find it useful to take Churchill and his comments on Russia one step

further in this preamble to my approach to the problem of redefining economic

development. This time I refer to his work The World Crisis: ‘Aftermath’,

(Volume 4). There, Churchill states: “He [Lenin] alone could have led Russia

into the enchanted quagmire; he alone could have found the way back to the

causeway. He was; he turned; he perished … The Russian people were left

floundering in the bog. Their worst misfortune was his birth, their next worst

– his death.”

If this time we replace “Russia” by “Guyana”, “Russian” by “Guyanese,”

and the reference to Lenin by a reference to Forbes Burnham, who would

dispute the truth of the statement?; but at the time of writing this, there are

many that would subscribe to at least its partial truth.

Both of the positions which I have taken in relation to the two statements

derive from the redefinition of economic development that I wish to propose.

ECONOMICS REDEFINED

W. Haslyn Parris

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