Jim Stanford - Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism

This is a short book by Jim Stanford for non-economics looking to understand capitalism.  It is pretty much math-free and explains the concepts for anyone to understand.

Jim Stanford is one of Canada’s best-known economists. He works for the Canadian Auto Workers union, Canada’s largest private sector trade union, and writes a regular economics column for the Globe and Mail. He speaks regularly to the media on current economic issues, and to audiences of unions, community activists, and others concerned with building a more democratic, critical approach to economics. He received his Master’s degree in Economics from Cambridge University, U.K., and his Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research in New York City. He was the founding chairperson of the Progressive Economics Forum, Canada’s network of progressive economists. His previous book, Paper Boom (James Lorimer & Co., 1999), was well-reviewed as an accessible critique of the wasteful practices of the financial industry.

Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction: Why Study Economics? 1

Part One: Preliminaries
1 The Economy and Economics 17
2 Capitalism 33
3 Economic History 40
4 The Politics of Economics 52

Part Two: The Basics of Capitalism: Work, Tools, and Profi t
5 Work, Production, and Value 65
6 Working with Tools 76
7 Companies, Owners, and Profi t 86
8 Workers and Bosses 99
9 Reproduction (for Economists!) 111
10 Closing the Little Circle 119

Part Three: Capitalism as a System
11 Competition 129
12 Investment and Growth 140
13 Employment and Unemployment 151
14 Dividing the Pie 162
15 Capitalism and the Environment 172

Part Four: The Complexity of Capitalism
16 Money and Banking 189
17 Infl ation, Central Banks, and Monetary Policy 200
18 Paper Chase: Stock Markets, Financialization,
and Pensions 214
19 The Confl icting Personalities of Government 226
20 Spending and Taxing 239
21 Globalization 253
22 Development (and Otherwise) 269
23 Closing the Big Circle 281
24 The Ups and Downs of Capitalism 291

Part Five: Challenging Capitalism
25 Evaluating Capitalism 305
26 Improving Capitalism 315
27 Replacing Capitalism? 324

Conclusion: A Dozen Big Things to Remember

About Economics 335

Index 341