The degree to which economics is isolated from the ordinary business of life is extraordinary and unfortunate. .. It is no longer firmly grounded in systematic empirical investigation .. A modern market economy with its ever finer division of labor depends on a constantly expanding network of trade. It requires an intricate web of social institutions to coordinate the workings of markets and firms .. The reduction of economics to price theory is troubling enough. It is suicidal for the field to slide into a hard science of choice, ignoring the influences of society, history, culture, and politics .. [K]nowledge will come only if economics can be reoriented to the study of man as he is and the economic system as it actually exists.