The Messiness of Economic Analysis

Right now I am reading How The West Grew Rich, by Rosenberg and Birdzell (Basic Books 1986). It's a spectacularly good book, makes me notice again how much good stuff gets lost having gone down the river as new books get written. It's big on institutions allowing capitol accumulation and encouraging risk taking.

I plan to read Clark later, but find it hard to imagine that I'll think his new ideas should replace these well-buttressed old ones.

Why isn't comparative advantage enough to explain the sudden growth? The benefits from trade arise as soon as people start trading, but to do that effectively you need a certain amount of technology, e.g. steam engines.

In fact I wonder about Bryan's hypothetical of a few posts ago, "what if the American revolution failed?": in the century after 1776, England dropped its tariffs and launched the industrial revolution, would this have happened had the founding fathers been crushed?

Could you comment on the Barney Frank editorial in today's Boston Globe.