"The core value for Brown in Buddhist economics is interdependence expressed in three ways. The first expression of interdependence posits a way of being with others that strikes at the very center of capitalism – the aggrandizement of the self through accumulation of goods, friends and honors. The second expression finds its outlet through a long view of environmental resources, not unlike the Native American seven generations perspective. On the contrary, the cost-benefit calculations of capitalism, as we all know, focus on immediate profit and loss and are integral to its functioning. And the third expression resembles a radical form of what is termed the care economy – primarily the unpaid work of women –generalized beyond gender and geography. In a Buddhist economy the elimination of suffering becomes a top priority. [...] Brown’s criticism of capitalism falls generally within the liberal orbit. [...] Brown’s Buddhism fails to apply the devastating implications of its ethic and essentially falls back on Christian redemptionism. For example, the interdependency of Buddhism presumes something more than being kind to friends and neighbors, and certainly more than empathetic universalism for the poor of the world.

"In a Hobbesian marketplace full of predators and lambs, an economist offers a case for being a little nicer—and more mindful. [...] Brown’s portrait of an ideal market is speculative in the ordinary sense of the word, but, even if likely to be dismissed by the financier class, it makes for an attractive prospectus."