Donald Palmer of University of California, Davis reviews, “The Fracturing of the American Corporate Elite” by Mark S. Mizruchi. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Examines the rise and fall of the American corporate elite between 1945 and the present and considers the role of this decline in the current crises of American democracy and economics. Discusses the rise of the American corporate elite; the state and the economy; labor as uneasy partner; the banks as mediators; the breakdown of the postwar consensus; winning the war but losing the battle—the fragmentation of the American corporate elite; the aftermath; and the ineffectual elite. Mizruchi is Barger Family Professor of Organizational Studies and Professor of Sociology and Business Administration at the University of Michigan.”

Uskali Maki read three books by McCloskey on the "rhetoric of economics" with sympathy. But he wants McCloskey to choose between a coherence and a correspondence theory of truth. McCloskey notes in reply that modern epistemology - by contrast with the analytic philosophy circa 1955 that many philosophers of economics espouse - rejects the choice. Modern epistemology would say that economic scientists argue in many legitimate ways, governed by ethics. In brief, as Maki agrees, economics has a rhetoric. Rhetoric is a better guide than 1955-style analytic philosophy.

Tobacco regulation has been a major component of health policy in the developed world since the UK Royal College of Physicians' and the US Surgeon General's reports in the 1960s. Such regulation, which has intensified in the past two decades, includes cigarette taxation, place-based smoking bans in areas ranging from bars and restaurants to workplaces, and regulations designed to make tobacco products less desirable. More recently, the availability of alternative products, most notably e-cigarettes, has increased dramatically, and these products are just starting to be regulated. Despite an extensive body of research on tobacco regulations, there remains substantial debate regarding their effectiveness, and ultimately, their impact on economic welfare. We provide the first comprehensive review of the state of research in the economics of tobacco regulation in two decades.