Waldman and Brat

Welfare economics: inequality, production, and technology (part 3 of a series) by Steve Randy Waldman

Dave Brat’s unorthodox economics: Adam Smith ‘was from a red state’ by Matt O'Brien

As Zach Beauchamp points out, Brat thinks that most economists have smuggled a utilitarian ethic—maximizing the most good for the most people—into economic analysis, without debating whether there are other, better ethics. 

What would be a better ethic? Well, for Brat that's simple enough: Christianity. He realizes that markets can fail, but he doesn't think regulation is the answer. He thinks religion is. "If markets are bad, which they are, that means people are bad, which they are," he says in a 2011 paper. The answer is to "preach the gospel and change hearts and souls," so we can "make all of the people good"—which means "markets will be good" too. 

Not exactly Dodd-Frank.