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Last update

19 November 2010

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Basic Economics

 

Part One

Early Economic Schools of Thought

The study of economic theory is relatively new

with only about a 300-year history

 

Part Two

Adam Smith Defines Capitalism

Adam Smith saw himself as a philosopher but because

of his interest in the operations and principles

of the market he became known as an economist

 

Part Three

David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill

Two great English thinkers differed on the benefits

of the capitalist system and influenced

economic theory in the Victoria age

 

Part Four

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a German political philosopher and revolutionary. With Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), he co-founded scientific socialism (modern communism) and, as such, they were among the most influential thinkers of all times

 

Part Five

Establishing Value

For thousands of years, scholars and theorists

have tried to explain how items get their "value"

 

Part Six

The Austrian School of Economics

While the classical economists believed that Adam Smith’s laissez-faire economy was the only way to go, the Austrians had their doubts

 

Part Seven

John Maynard Keynes

Recognized as an intellectual giant by liberals,

Keynes is seen by conservatives as a

dangerous, socialist subversive

 

Part Eight

Chicago School

A return to unregulated, free-market economics

came as a reaction to Keynesianism and the

debts governments racked up in its name

 

Basic Economics Part Nine

Some Leading Economists

William Graham Sumner,Thorstein Bunde Veblen, Joseph Alois Schumpeter, and John Kenneth Galbraith are just a few of the people who have added to an understanding of the complexity of economic theory

 

 

 

There’s an old saying about economics professors: They don’t change their exam questions from year to year, they just change the answers.