Taking Economics Seriously

Taking Economics Seriously
Author: Dean Baker
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2010-04-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0262291533

A leading economist's exploration of what our economic arrangements might look like if we applied basic principles without ideological blinders. There is nothing wrong with economics, Dean Baker contends, but economists routinely ignore their own principles when it comes to economic policy. What would policy look like if we took basic principles of mainstream economics seriously and applied them consistently? In the debate over regulation, for example, Baker—one of the few economists who predicted the meltdown of fall 2008—points out that ideological blinders have obscured the fact there is no “free market” to protect. Modern markets are highly regulated, although intrusive regulations such as copyright and patents are rarely viewed as regulatory devices. If we admit the extent to which the economy is and will be regulated, we have many more options in designing policy and deciding who benefits from it. On health care reform, Baker complains that economists ignore another basic idea: marginal cost pricing. Unlike all other industries, medical services are priced extraordinarily high, far above the cost of production, yet that discrepancy is rarely addressed in the debate about health care reform. What if we applied marginal cost pricing—making doctors' wages competitive and charging less for prescription drugs and tests such as MRIs? Taking Economics Seriously offers an alternative Econ 101. It introduces economic principles and thinks through what we might gain if we free ourselves from ideological blinders and get back to basics in the most troubled parts of our economy.

Basic Economics

Basic Economics
Author: Thomas Sowell
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 990
Release: 2014-12-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0465056849

The bestselling citizen's guide to economics Basic Economics is a citizen's guide to economics, written for those who want to understand how the economy works but have no interest in jargon or equations. Bestselling economist Thomas Sowell explains the general principles underlying different economic systems: capitalist, socialist, feudal, and so on. In readable language, he shows how to critique economic policies in terms of the incentives they create, rather than the goals they proclaim. With clear explanations of the entire field, from rent control and the rise and fall of businesses to the international balance of payments, this is the first book for anyone who wishes to understand how the economy functions. This fifth edition includes a new chapter explaining the reasons for large differences of wealth and income between nations. Drawing on lively examples from around the world and from centuries of history, Sowell explains basic economic principles for the general public in plain English.

What Every Economics Student Needs to Know and Doesn't Get in the Usual Principles Text

What Every Economics Student Needs to Know and Doesn't Get in the Usual Principles Text
Author: John Komlos
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2014-02-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0765643715

This short book explores a core group of 40 topics that tend to go unexplored in an Introductory Economics course. Though not a replacement for an introductory text, the work is intended as a supplement to provoke further thought and discussion by juxtaposing blackboard models of the economy with empirical observations.

Taking Money Seriously and Other Essays

Taking Money Seriously and Other Essays
Author: David E. W. Laidler
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 1990
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Putting the matters back into money matters is David Laidler's intent in this collection of ten essays on the role of monetary institutions in the development of monetary theory and the implications of these ideas for policy. Together, the essays provide a coherent and accessible introduction to the power and range of thinking by one of the world's leading monetary economists. In Taking Money Seriously Laidler seeks to develop and sustain monetarist ideas of the 1960s in relationship to the new classical economics and to argue their continued policy relevance. Money matters, he points out, because monetary exchange rather than the Walrasian market coordinates economic activity in the real world. Laidler's discussion of the costs of inflation points up the importance of money's means-of-exchange role and is followed by an extended critique of new classical economics. He devotes several chapters to policy issues, in which he asserts that the monetary system is a public good whose organization and control present inherently political problems. David Laidler is Professor of Economics at the University of Western Ontario.

Economics Explained

Economics Explained
Author: Robert L. Heilbroner
Publisher: Touchstone
Total Pages: 300
Release: 1994
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Two of America's most respected economists clarify the basics of economics for everyone who wants to understand the nature of the economic forces that seem to rule our lives. "Clarity triumphant, whether the topic is inflation or government, markets or Marx".--Newsday.

Sack the Economists and Disband Their Departments

Sack the Economists and Disband Their Departments
Author: Geoff Davies
Publisher:
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2014-02
Genre: Economic development
ISBN: 9780992360399

Mainstream economists completely failed to anticipate the financial market crash of 2007-8. They then called it an unforeseeable event. This is a clear admission that they don't understand how economies work. Yet many non-mainstream, marginalised economists gave clear warning of the approaching crash. This book shows how mainstream economics has not one but many fundamental flaws. It is not a science, it is pseudo-science. It lacks scholarly rigour and integrity. Once you understand this, it is not a mystery why the mainstreamers missed the approaching crash, nor why wealth is so unequally distributed, why we are so materialistic and unfulfilled, and why the planet is being destroyed. But modern knowledge and systems ideas reveal market economies to be self-organising systems, and they can be managed to support dignified livelihoods in equitable societies that can survive into the indefinite future, with nature thriving along with them. 'This book raises many interesting questions, most importantly, why does anyone take economists seriously when it comes to discussing the economy?' - Dean Baker, Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington D.C. 'Geoff Davies has a very good idea. Economics has locked itself into an intellectual cul-desac.Even its failure to anticipate the global economic crisis was not enough to force it out. So let's sack the economists and let real scientists take over this vital but currently dangerous discipline.' - Steve Keen, Economist and author of the popular book Debunking Economics. 'With delightful wit and insightful analogies, geophysicist Geoff Davies dissects the inconsistencies - and the inanities - of mainstream economics.' - Sam Pizzigati, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, D.C., and author of The Rich Don't Always Win.

Eat the Rich

Eat the Rich
Author: P. J. O'Rourke
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2007-12-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1555847102

A New York Times bestseller: “The funniest writer in America” takes on the global economy (The Wall Street Journal). In this book, renowned political humorist P. J. O’Rourke, author of Parliament of Whores and How the Hell Did This Happen? leads us on a hysterical whirlwind world tour from the “good capitalism” of Wall Street to the “bad socialism” of Cuba in search of the answer to an age-old question: “Why do some places prosper and thrive, while others just suck?” With stops in Albania, Sweden, Hong Kong, Moscow, and Tanzania, O’Rourke takes a look at the complexities of economics with a big dose of the incomparable wit that has made him one of today’s most refreshing commentators. “O’Rourke has done the unthinkable: he’s made money funny.” —Forbes FYI “[O’Rourke is] witty, smart and—though he hides it under a tough coat of cynicism—a fine reporter . . . Delightful.” —The New York Times Book Review