Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism

Contents......Page 8
Acknowledgements......Page 10
Introduction: Why Study Economics?......Page 12
Part One: Preliminaries......Page 26
1 The Economy and Economics......Page 28
2 Capitalism......Page 44
3 Economic History......Page 51
4 The Politics of Economics......Page 63
Part Two: The Basics of Capitalism: Work, Tools, and Profit......Page 74
5 Work, Production, and Value......Page 76
6 Working with Tools......Page 87
7 Companies, Owners, and Profi t......Page 97
8 Workers and Bosses......Page 110
9 Reproduction (for Economists!)......Page 122
10 Closing the Little Circle......Page 130
Part Three: Capitalism as a System......Page 138
11 Competition......Page 140
12 Investment and Growth......Page 151
13 Employment and Unemployment......Page 162
14 Dividing the Pie......Page 173
15 Capitalism and the Environment......Page 183
Part Four: The Complexity of Capitalism......Page 198
16 Money and Banking......Page 200
17 Inflation, Central Banks, and Monetary Policy......Page 211
18 Paper Chase: Stock Markets, Financialization, and Pensions......Page 225
19 The Conflicting Personalities of Government......Page 237
20 Spending and Taxing......Page 250
21 Globalization......Page 264
22 Development (and Otherwise)......Page 280
23 Closing the Big Circle......Page 293
24 The Ups and Downs of Capitalism......Page 303
Part Five: Challenging Capitalism......Page 315
25 Evaluating Capitalism......Page 317
26 Improving Capitalism......Page 327
27 Replacing Capitalism?......Page 336
Conclusion: A Dozen Big Things to RememberAbout Economics......Page 347
Index......Page 353