Economics for Everyone

Jim Stanford is Director of the Centre for Future Work, based at the Australia Institute and Honorary Professor of Political Economy at University of Sydney. He writes an economics column for the Globe and Mail, appears regularly on CBC TV's 'Bottom Line' economics panel and is the author of Economics for Everyone (Pluto, 2015).

Economics is too important to be left to the economists. This book provides the information you need to understand how capitalism works (and how it doesn't). Through clear bite-sized chapters interspersed with illuminating illustrations, this is an antidote to the abstract and ideological way that economics is normally taught and reported on in in media. Key concepts such as finance, competition and wages are explored, and their importance to everyday life is revealed. It answers questions such as 'Do workers need capitalists?', 'Why does capitalism harm the environment?', and 'What really happens on the stock market?'. The book is supported with a comprehensive set of web-based course materials including videos for popular economics courses.

Accessible and critical guide to key economic concepts, relating them to our everyday experience. Clear text complemented by educational cartoons.

Acknowledgements x Introduction: Why Study Economics? x Part One: Preliminaries 1 The Economy and Economics 2 Capitalism 3 Economic History 4 The Politics of Economics Part Two: The Basics of Capitalism: Work, Tools, and Profit 5 Work, Production, and Value 6 Working with Tools 7 Companies, Owners, and Profit 8 Working for a Living 9 Reproduction (for Economists!) 10 Closing the Little Circle Part Three: Capitalism as a System 11 Competition 12 Business Investment 13 Employment and Unemployment 14 Inequality and its Consequences 15 Divide and Conquer 16 Capitalism and the Environment Part Four: The Complexity of Capitalism 17 Money and Banking 18 Inflation, Central Banks, and Monetary Policy 19 Paper Chase: Stock Markets, Financialization, and Pensions 20 The Conflicting Personalities of Government 21 Spending and Taxing 22 Globalization 23 Development (and Otherwise) 24 Closing the Big Circle 25 The Ups and Downs of Capitalism 26 Meltdown and Aftermath Part Five: Challenging Capitalism 27 Evaluating Capitalism 28 Improving Capitalism 29 Replacing Capitalism? Conclusion: A Dozen Big Things to Remember Index