[How Much Money Does an Economy Need? Solving the Central
Economic Puzzle of Money, Prices, and Jobs. By Hunter Lewis.
Axios Press. Vi + 185 pages.] In Are the Rich Necessary? Hunter
Lewis showed himself to be a master of dialectics; and he here
applies the same method to monetary theory. Not content to
expound his own views, Lewis carefully explains conflicting
standpoints as well. Lewis does not disguise his own strong
commitment to Austrian economics, but the reader of this book
will understand not only this position, but its chief
competitors as well. Lewis begins by asking, what kind of prices
do we want? At first, we might think that stable prices are the
order of the day. If the price level fluctuates, does this not
make economic calculation much more difficult? If the price
level is rising, e.g., businessmen may think they are making
profits when they are in fact losing money. They may neglect to
discount their paper profits by the rate of inflation. This
position at times won the allegiance of the gr