Money and Markets: Essays in Honor of Leland B. Yeager

104 Jürgen G. Backhauscareful review of the sources. For the purpose at hand, however, I focus on whereEucken derived his notion of an order in economic life.In principle, one could think that Eucken followed Max Weber and postulatedan ideal type of an economic order. However, as Goldschmidt points out, he was atpains to distance himself from Weber, whose ideal type he considered a Utopia(p. 51). Rather, as Goldschmidt emphasizes in Chapter 4, Eucken sought scholarlyunderstanding through (religious) belief (p. 121). In this, he explicitly refers back tohis father Rudolf Eucken. 5 The economic order Eucken sought had to be, at thesame time, an order in which one could lead one’s life according to ethical principlesand deeply rooted in Christian (Lutheran) belief (p. 121). The Ordo-principles hefound can be represented in what looks like a wheel of the basic principles of marketeconomy (p. 133). I herewith reproduce an English adaptation of the wheel (seeFigure 8.2).The following section is devoted to a further discussion of the wheel and to anattempt to probe its intellectual origins.It strikes me as surprising that the cornerstone of Ordo-liberalism should begrounded in Lutheran-protestant thought. Leland himself, in an arcane footnote,refers to Friedrich Nietzsche but does not underpin my argument by what he writes(Yeager 2001: 229). Is it not really surprising that Leland, the agnostic, shouldsubscribe to an economic theory ladled out of the fountain of Christianity? Perhapswe are not too off the mark. In logic we learn ex falso quod libet. From a false statementanything can be deduced, even truth. We are not talking about explicitly falsestatements though; the problem is rather that we are confronted with the teachingsof an economist who felt that his economic insight had to parallel his religiousbeliefs. Can a Turkish immigrant to the European Union who opens a grocerystore in a metropolitan city conform to these principles, although he has never beentaught these protestant insights? 6Since Eucken’s principles, which make eminent economic sense, have no crediblefoundation in empiric evidence, 7 but since, on the other hand, they make plainEconomicpolicy to ensurepropertyPrimacy of astable currencyRegulationagainstanti-competitivebehaviorPredictabilityof economicpolicyLiabilityPrimary principle:functional price-basedcompetitionOpenmarketsPrivatepropertyReliableeconomicstatisticsFreedomof contractControl ofmonopoliesFigure 8.2 Eucken’s Wheel.