Tomáš Sedláček (economist)

Tomáš Sedlacek ( born January 23, 1977 in Roudnice nad Labem ) is a Czech economist and university professor. He was particularly known for his book The Economics of Good and Evil.

Life

Tomáš Sedlacek spent part of his childhood in Denmark and Finland, where his father as director of the representation of the state-owned airline of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (then aerolinie Československé, today Czech Airlines ) worked.

Two weeks after his doctorate at the University of Prague in 2001 he was economic advisor to then President Václav Havel. From November 2001 to February 2003 Sedlacek worked for the Czech President. From January 2004 he was appointed as advisor to the then Minister of Finance of the Czech Republic, Bohuslav Sobotka, with the task of reducing the budget deficit and reforming the tax system. He left this job in 2006 " due to the excessive politicization of the work of the Ministry ." Shortly thereafter, Sedlacek received a scholarship ( Yale World Fellows Program ) at Yale University in the United States.

Since his return from the United States Sedlacek is Chief Economist at the Czechoslovak Trade Bank ( CSOB ), the largest Czech bank. In 2009 he became a member of the National Economic Council, which advises the Czech government. He also teaches at Charles University in Prague Economic History and philosophy and works as a columnist.

The Economics of Good and Evil

With his 2009 first published in Czech book The Economics of Good and Evil Sedlacek became known quickly. The book goes back to his doctoral thesis at the Institute of Economics of the University of Prague, but this was rejected there. It was 2009, the first non-fiction book that came in the bestseller lists in the Czech Republic. In the same year he received the Forest Press Award for the book. In English it was published in 2011 by the Oxford University Press in the United States, with a foreword by Václav Havel.

The Financial Times and the New York Times devoted a book by Sedlacek detailed reviews. The book was even the template for a play, which was performed 80 times at the Czech National Theatre in Prague on.

The book is a journey through the cultural and economic history, from the Epic of Gilgamesh on the Old Testament to Thomas Aquinas and Adam Smith, on the films Fight Club and Matrix up to Wall Street and the financial and economic crisis from 2007. Sedlacek provides the mathematical and analytical, seemingly value-free approach of modern economics into question and calls for that every individual, no matter how trivial appearing purchasing decision is ultimately a moral decision.

Given the budget deficit in many states he asks provocatively, as one can speak of economic growth at 3% borrowing of 1%. To stem the debt, prune future options for action, calls Sedlacek - referring to Genesis 41 - to save in good years for the lean: the debt should 3 % of economic output minus the economic growth does not exceed ( " Joseph " rule ). The greed for growth (both private and in the national economy ), he opposes: "Our view of the world suffers from the fact that we always see the paradise only in the future ."

For his now published also in Germany publication The Economics of Good and Evil Tomas Sedlacek received the German Business Book Award in 2012.

Criticism

Peter Vogt praises Tomáš Sedláček book The Economics of Good and Evil for the comprehensive analysis, but also does not spare criticism. So he keeps the versions of Sedlacek advised on the book title for too thin in terms. In addition, the author too often prefer his approaches to historical explanation of economic processes and come to some questionable assumptions. So he discover in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the economic theory of the invisible hand, which was formulated in the form known today much later by Adam Smith. And Joseph's advice to Pharaoh interpret it as a precursor of Keynesian counter-cyclical fiscal policy. Furthermore, Xenophon had allegedly already written textbooks for micro-and macroeconomics.

The criticism boils down to reprimand Sedlacek for permanent application of the " myth of anticipation " because just as historical explanations could be given exactly not. This error was probably undermined him, because he had chosen a rather problematic way of looking at the history of economics and the economics sciences with the concept of archetypes according to Jung. Historically not convincing is the reference to Werner Sombart and his controversial writing, the Jews and the economic life without Sedlacek had accepted the anti-Semitic stereotypes existing there.

Writings

• Tomáš Sedlacek: Economics of Good and Evil. Hanser, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-446-42823-2 (Translation from the American by Ingrid Pross -Gill ) Czech: dobra a zla Ekonomie. Po stopách lidského tázání od Gilgameše po finanční krizi. 65.pole, Praha 2009. ISBN 978-80-903944-3-8
• English: Economics of Good and Evil. The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street. Foreword by Václav Havel, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-19-976720-5.

• Czech: homo economicus Soumrak. Rozhovor 's Romanem Chlupatým. 65.pole, Praha, 2012.