Radical Economists Begin Publishing 'Dollars & Sense'

Six Harvard Faculty members and graduate students are among a group of radical economists who have started a magazine, Dollars and Sense, designed to present current economic events from a socialist perspective.

The magazine, which appeared for the first time last week, is sponsored by the Union for Radical Political Economics and published by a collective of URPE members in the Boston and Amherst areas.

Staffers say they organized the magazine because they felt there is a need for up-to-date analysis of economics understandable to a large audience.

"There is no way that you can get a good analysis of economics from any publication," Sam Baker, a member of Dollars and Sense and a Harvard graduate student, said yesterday. "There are lots of economic newsletters for investors or specialists, or radical magazines with long articles that are not to current."

"We are a monthly, hoping to reach a wide audience with little or no economics training," Baker said.

He added that he hoped the audience would include "college students, leftist activists, and union members."

Staffers of Dollars and Sense emphasize the national orientation of the magazine. "We don't want this to be seen as a Harvard-centered project," said Bill Lazonick, a graduate student here. "We're trying to draw on the resources of radical economists all over the country.."