Human Society and the Global Economy

Human Society and the Global Economy is a textbook-in-progress for a survey course in economics. It takes an institutionalist/Post-Keynesian approach. The organization of the book is primarily historical -- following the intertwined development of the global capitalist economy and of economics from the beginning of capitalism to the present. Themes that are examined include: micro-order and macro-order; market and state; development, growth and evolution of the capitalist economy; technology and society; distribution of income and wealth; and the visions of the major economists. Parts of it are currently being used in my Economics 100 course at Bellevue Community College.

It will be freely available online until it is finished, then it will be published by Atomic Dog Publishing.Com, a new publisher of online college textbooks. It should be completed by January, 2002. See note at bottom of this page for use guidlines.

The projected contents are listed below. Chapters for which the most recent draft is currently available can be accessed by clicking on the chapter title.

Part I -- The Basics

Chapter 1: Economies, Economics, and Economists

Appendix 1A: Productivity

Chapter 2: Material Life, Markets and Capitalism

Chapter 3: Why Economists Disagree

Appendix 3A: Measuring With Money

Chapter 4: The Market Mechanism

Appendix 4A: Supply and Demand in Graphs

Appendix B: Theories of Value

Chapter 5: Money -- From Barter to Banks

Appendix 5A: The Money Multiplier

Part II -- Building Capitalism

Chapter 6: Metamorphosis

Chapter 7: Capitalism's Crises and Critics

Chapter 8: The Arthritic Hand of Oligopoly

Chapter 9: Capitalism's Global Reach

Part III -- Depression / Prosperity / Stagflation / Prosperity

Chapter 10: The Great Depression

Appendix A: Measuring Output

Appendix B: Measuring Unemployment

Chapter 11: The Keynesian Revolution

Appendix A: Keynesian Economics in Graphs

Chapter 12: The Anatomy of Capitalism

Chapter 13: To Stagflation and Back

Chapter 14: Catching Up

Part IV -- The 21st Century Economy: Trends and Issues

Chapter 15: Technology, Employment, and Growth

Chapter 16: The New Globalism

Chapter 17: Income Distribution

Chapter 18: Economy and Environment

Chapter 19: Visions of the Future

Chapters of Human Society and the Global Economy may be used for instructional purposes. But I do ask that instructors who use it send me a note at kitaylor@bcc.ctc.edu indicating what chapter you are using and for what course. And I would certainly like comments and suggestions from instructors who are able to utilize parts of this work.