Understanding Capitalism

Preface
List of Figures
Sources of Economic Information
PART ONE: POLITICAL ECONOMY
1. Capitalism Shakes the World
The Permanent Technological Revolution
The Enrichment of Material Life
Growing Inequality
The Population Explosion and the Growth of Cities
The Changing Nature of Work
The Transformation of the Family
Threats to the Ecosystem
New Roles for Government
Globalization
Conclusion
2. People, Preferences, and Society
Constraints, Preferences, and Beliefs
'Economic Man' Reconsidered
Human Nature and Cultural Differences
The Economy Produces People
Conclusion: The Cooperative Species
3. A Three-Dimensional Approach to Economics
Economic Systems and Capitalism
Three-Dimensional Economics
Neoclassical Economics
Values in Political Economy
4. Political Economy, Past and Present
Adam Smith
Karl Marx
Joseph Schumpeter
John Maynard Keynes
Ronald Coase
Amartya Sen
5. The Surplus Product: Conflict and Change
Economic Interdependence, Production, and Reproduction
The Surplus Product
A Grain Model of Production and Reproduction
International Exchange and the Surplus Product
The Surplus Product and Conflict
The Surplus Product and Change
6. Capitalism as an Economic System
Class and Class Relationships
Classes and Economic Systems
Capitalism
Capitalism, the Surplus Product, and Profits
Conclusion
7. American Capitalism: Accumulation and Change
Accumulation as a Source of Change
Capitalism Becomes the Dominant Economic System in the United States
Social Structures of Accumulation
The Stages of American Capitalism
American Capitalism Today: Economic Dualism
American Capitalism Today: Globalism
PART TWO: MICROECONOMICS
8. Supply and Demand: How Markets Work
The Nature of Markets
Supply and Demand
Supply and Demand Interacting
Shifts in Demand or Supply
Conclusion
9. Competition and Coordination: The Invisible Hand
Coordination
Coordination by Rules and by Command
The Invisible Hand
The Invisible Hand in Action
Problems with the Invisible Hand
10. Capitalist Production and Profits
What Are Profits?
Calculating the Rate of Profit
The Determinants of the Profit Rate
The Rate of Profit per Worker Hour
The Labor Determinants of the Profit Rate
Materials and Capital Goods as Profit Rate Determinants
The Role of Capital Goods (Again)
Conclusion: Understanding the Profit Rate
11. Competition and Concentration
Competition for Profits
The Forms of Competition
Investing to Compete
The Dynamics of Competition
Toward Equal Profit Rates?
Toward Economic Concentration?
12. Wages and Work
Work, Sloth, and Social Organization
The Capitalist Firm As a Command Economy
The Conflict Between Workers and Employers
Labor Discipline: Carrots and Sticks
The Labor Market, the Wage, and the Intensity of Labor
13. Technology, Control, and Conflict in the Workplace
The Social Organization of the Workplace
Technology and the Labor Process
Conflict in the Workplace
Profitability Versus Efficiency
Markets and Hierarchies
Democratic Firms
PART THREE: MACROECONOMICS
14. The Mosaic of Inequality
Measuring Well-Being and Inequality
Growing Inequality
Wealth Inequality
Unequal Chances
Race and Inequality
Women's Work, Women's Wages
Conclusion: Explaining the Mosaic of Inequality
15. Progress and Poverty on a World Scale
Poverty and Progress
Productivity and Income
Productivity, Incentives, and the Surplus Product
Capitalism and Uneven Development
Government and the Development Process
Investment and Production on a World Scale
Conclusion
16. Aggregate Demand, Employment, and Unemployment
Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand
Unemployment and Government Fiscal Policy
The Business Cycle and the Built-in Stabilizers
Investment, Aggregate Demand, and Monetary Policy
Wages, Aggregate Demand, and Unemployment
Conclusion
17. The Dilemmas of Macroeconomic Policy
The High-Employment Profit Squeeze
Exports, Imports and Aggregate Demand
International Trade and Macroeconomic Policy
Monetary and Fiscal Policy at Odds
Institutions for Achieving Full Employment
Conclusion
18. Inflation
Two Types of Inflation
Why Worry About Inflation?
Conclusion
19. Government and the Economy
The Rules of Government Organization
The Economic Activities of the Government
The Expansion of Government Economic Activity
Government and the Profit Rate
The Limits of Democratic Control of the Capitalist Economy
PART FOUR: CONCLUSION
20. The Future of Capitalism
The Limits to Growth
The Weightless Economy: From Grain and Steel to Information and Ideas
The New Economy
Can the Invisible Hand Tame Fugitive Resources?
Conclusion
List of Variables
Glossary
Index