The Economics Book

LET THE TRADING BEGIN: 400BCE-1770CE. Property should be private: Property rights --
What is a just price?: Markets and morality --
You don't need to barter when you have coins: The function of money --
Make money from money: Financial services --
Money causes inflation: The quantity theory of money --
Protect us from foreign goods: Protectionism and trade --
The economy can be counted: Measuring wealth --
Let firms be traded: Public companies --
Wealth comes from the land: Agriculture in the economy --
Money and goods flow between producers and consumers: The circular flow of the economy --
Private individuals never pay for street lights: Provision of public goods and services. THE AGE OF REASON: 1770-1820. Man is a cold, rational calculator: Economic man --
The invisible hand of the market brings order: Free market economics --
The last worker adds less to output than the first: Diminishing returns --
Why do diamonds cost more than water?: The paradox of value --
Make taxes fair and efficient: The tax burden --
Divide up pin: production, and you get more pins: The division of labor --
Population growth keeps us poor: Demographics and economics --
Meetings of merchants end in conspiracies to raise prices: Cartels and collusion --
Supply creates its own demand: Gluts in markets --
Borrow now, tax later: Borrowing and debt --
The economy is a yo-yo: Boom and bust --
Trade is beneficial for all: Comparative advantage. INDUSTRIAL AND ECONOMIC REVOULTIONS: 1820-1929. How much should I produce, given the competition?: Effects of limited competition --
Phone calls cost more without competition: Monopolies --
Crowds breed collective insanity: Economic bubbles --
Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution: Marxist economics --
The value of a product comes from the effort needed to make it: The labor theory of value --
Prices come from supply and demand: Supply and demand --
You enjoy the last chocolate less than the first: Utility and satisfaction --
When the price goes up, some people buy more: Spending paradoxes --
A system of free markets is stable: Economic equilibrium --
If you get a pay raise, buy caviar not bread: Elasticity of demand --
Companies are price takers not price makers: The competitive market --
Make one person better off without hurting the others: Efficiency and fairness --
The bigger the factory, the lower the cost: Economies of scale --
The cost of going to the movies is the fun you'd have had at an ice rink: Opportunity cost --
Workers must improve their lot together: Collective bargaining --
People consume to be noticed: Conspicuous consumption --
Make the polluter pay: External costs --
Protestantism has made us rich: Religion and the economy --
The poor are unlucky, not bad: The poverty problem --
Socialism is the abolition of rational economy: Central planning --
Capitalism destroys the old and creates the new: Creative destruction. WAR AND DEPRESSIONS: 1929-1945 --
Unemployment is not a choice: Depressions and unemployment --
Some people love risk, others avoid it: Risk and uncertainty --
Government spending boosts the economy by more than what is spent: The Keynesian multiplier --
Economies are embedded in culture: Economics and tradition --
Managers go for perks, not their company's profits: Corporate governance --
The economy is a predictable machine: Testing economic theories --
Economics is the science of scarce resources: Definitions of economics --
We wish to preserve a free society: Economic liberalism --
Industrialization creates sustained growth: The emergence of modern economies --
Different prices to different people: Price discrimination. POST-WAR ECONOMICS: 1945-1970. In the wake of war: and depression, nations must cooperate: International trade and Bretton Woods --
All poor countries need is a big push: Development economics --
People are influenced by irrelevant alternatives: Irrational decision making --
Governments should do nothing but control the money supply: Monetarist policy --
The more people at work, the higher their bills: Inflation and unemployment --
People smooth consumption over their life spans: Saving to spend --
Institutions matter: Institutions in economics --
People will avoid work if they can: Market information and incentives --
Theories about market efficiency require many assumptions: Markets and social outcomes --
There is no perfect voting system: Social choice theory --
The aim is to maximize happiness, not income: The economics of happiness --
Policies to correct markets can make things worse: The theory of the second best --
Make markets fair: The social market economy --
Over time, all countries will be rich: Economic growth theories --
Globalization is not inevitable: Market integration --
Socialism leads to empty shops: Shortages in planned economies --
What does the other man think I am going to do?: Game theory --
Rich countries impoverish the poor: Dependency theory --
You can't fool the people: Rational expectations --
People don't care about probability when they choose: Paradoxes in decision making --
Similar economies can benefit from a single currency: Exchange rates and currencies --
Famine can happen in good harvests: Entitlement theory. CONTEMPORARY ECONOMICS: 1970-PRESENT. It is possible to invest without risk: Financial engineering --
People are not 100 percent rational: Behavioral economics --
Tax cuts can increase the tax take: Taxation and economic incentives --
Prices tell you everything: Efficient markets --
Over time, even the selfish cooperate with others: Competition and cooperation --
Most cars traded will be lemons: Market uncertainty --
The government's promises are incredible: Independent central banks --
The economy is chaotic even when individuals are not: Complexity and chaos --
Social networks are a kind of capital: Social capital --
Education is only a signal of ability: Signaling and screening --
The East Asian state governs the market: Asian Tiger economies --
Beliefs can trigger currency crises: Speculation and currency devaluation --
Auction winners pay over the odds: The winner's curse --
Stable economies contain the seeds of instability: Financial crises --
Businesses pay more than the market wage: Incentives and wages --
Real wages rise during a recession: Sticky wages --
Finding a job is like finding a partner or a house: Searching and matching --
The biggest challenge for collective action is climate change: Economics and the environment --
GDP ignores women: Gender and economics --
Comparative advantage is an accident: Trade and geography --
Like steam, computers have revolutionized economies: Technological leaps --
We can kick-start poor economies by writing off debt: International debt relief --
Pessimism can destroy healthy banks: Bank runs --
Savings gluts abroad fuel speculation at home: Global savings imbalances --
More equal societies grow faster: Inequality and growth --
Even beneficial economic reforms can fail: Resisting economic change --
The housing market mirrors boom and bust: Housing and the economic cycle. Let the trading begin: 400 BCE-1770 CE --
The age of reason: 1770-1820 --
Industrial and economic revolutions: 1820-1929 --
War and depressions: 1929-1945 --
Post-war economics: 1945-70 --
Contemporary economics: 1970-present.