The ABCs of political economy : a modern approach

1. Economics and liberating theory --
People and society --
The human center --
Natural, species, and derived needs and potentials --
Human consciousness --
Human sociability --
Human character Structures --
The relation of consciousness to activity --
The possibility of detrimental character structures --
The institutional boundary --
Why must there be social institutions? --
Complementary holism --
Four spheres of social life --
Relations between center, boundary, and spheres --
Social stability and social change --
Agents of history --
Applications --
2. What should we demand from our economy? --
Economic justice --
Increasing inequality of wealth and income --
Different conceptions of economic justice --
Efficiency --
The Pareto principle --
The efficiency criterion --
Seven deadly sins of inefficiency --
Endogenous preferences --
Self-management --
Solidarity --
Variety --
Sustainability --
Weak versus strong versus environmental sustainability --
A workable definition of sustainable development --
Growth --
Conclusion --
3. Efficiency and economic justice: a simple corn model --
Model 3.1: a domestic corn economy --
Situation 1: inegalitarian distribution of scarce seed corn --
Autarky --
Labor market --
Credit market --
Situation 2: egalitarian distribution of scarce seed corn --
Autarky --
Labor market --
Credit market --
Conclusions from the domestic corn model --
Generalizing conclusions --
Economic justice in the corn model --
Economic justice, exploitation, and alienation --
Occupy Wall Street --
Model 3.2: a global corn economy --
4. Markets: guided by an invisible hand or foot? --
How do markets work? --
What is a market? --
The \"law\" of supply --
The \"law\" of demand --
The \"law\" of uniform price --
The micro \"law\" of supply and demand --
Elasticity of supply and demand --
The dream of a beneficent invisible hand --
The nightmare of a malevolent invisible foot --
Externalities: the auto industry --
Public goods: pollution reduction --
Green consumerism --
The prevalence of external effects --
Snowballing inefficiency --
Market disequilibria --
Conclusion: market failure is significant --
Markets undermine the ties that bind us --
5. Microeconomic models --
Model 5.1: the public good game --
Model 5.2: the price of power game --
The price of patriarchy --
Conflict theory of the firm --
Model 5.3: climate control treaties --
Model 5.4: the Sraffa model of income distribution and prices --
The Sraffa model --
Technical change in the Sraffa model --
Technical change and the rate of profit --
A note of caution --
Producers and parasites --
6. Macroeconomics: aggregate demand as leading lady --
The macro \"law\" of supply and demand --
Aggregate demand --
Consumption demand --
Investment demand --
Government spending --
The pie principle --
The simple Keynesian closed economy macro model --
Fiscal policy --
The fallacy of Say\'s Law --
Income expenditure multipliers --
Other causes of unemployment and inflation --
Myths about inflation --
Myths about deficits and the National Debt --
The balanced budget ploy --
Wage-led growth --
7. Money, banks, and finance --
Money: a problematic convenience --
Banks: bigamy not a proper marriage --
Monetary policy: another way to skin the cat --
The relationship between the financial and \"real\" economies --
The financial crisis of 2008: a perfect storm --
8. International economics: mutual benefit or imperialism? --
Why trade can increase global efficiency --
Comparative, not absolute, advantage drives trade --
Why trade can decrease global efficiency --
Inaccurate prices can misidentify comparative advantage --
Unstable international markets can cause macro inefficiencies --
Adjustment costs are not always insignificant --
Dynamic inefficiency --
Why trade usually aggravates global inequality --
Unfair distribution of the benefits of trade between countries --
Unfair distribution of the costs and benefits of trade within countries --
Why international investment could increase global efficiency --
Why international investment often decreases global efficiency --
Why international investment usually aggravates global inequality --
Open economy macroeconomics --
International currency markets --
Aggregate supply and demand in the open economy model --
Income expenditure multipliers in the open economy model --
Capital flows in the open economy model --
Monetary unions and the Eurozone --
9. Macroeconomic models --
Model 9.1: Finance --
Bank runs --
International financial crises --
Conclusion --
Model 9.2: finance in real corn economies --
Banks in a domestic corn model --
Autarky --
Imperfect lending without banks --
Lending with banks when all goes well --
Lending with banks when all does not go well --
International finance in a global corn economy revisited --
Model 9.3: macroeconomic policy in a closed economy --
Model 9.4: macroeconomic policy in an open economy --
An IMF conditionality agreement with Brazil --
EC austerity policy and Greece --
Model 9.5: a political economy growth model --
The general framework --
A Keynesian theory of investment --
A Marxian theory of wage determination --
Solving the model --
An increase in capitalists\' propensity to save --
An increase in capitalists\' propensity to invest --
An increase in workers\' bargaining power --
Wage-led growth --
10. What is to be undone? The economics of competition and greed --
Myth 1: free enterprise equals economic freedom --
Myth 2: free enterprise promotes political freedom --
Myth 3: free enterprise is efficient --
Biased price signals --
Conflict theory of the firm --
Myth 4: free enterprise reduces discrimination --
Myth 5: free enterprise is fair --
Myth 6: markets equal economic freedom --
Myth 7: markets are fair --
Myth 8: markets are efficient --
What went wrong? --
Neoliberal capitalism in crisis --
11. What is to be done? The economics of equitable cooperation --
Not all capitalisms are created equal --
Keynesian reforms --
Taming finance --
Reducing economic injustice --
Beyond capitalism --
Worker and consumer empowerment --
Worker-owned cooperatives --
Market socialism --
Democratic planning --
Participatory economics --
From here to there --
The future economy --
Conclusion --
A green new deal.