Principles of Economics for a Post-Meltdown World
This brief emphasizes the ways in which introductory economics textbooks incorrectly rely on assumptions about the free market, the rational agent model, market fundamentalism, and standard long-standing assumptions in economics, and in doing so disregard
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John Komlos
Principles of Economics for a Post-Meltdown World 123
SpringerBriefs in Economics
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8876
John Komlos
Principles of Economics for a Post-Meltdown World
123
John Komlos University of Munich Munich Germany
ISSN 2191-5504 SpringerBriefs in Economics ISBN 978-3-319-27827-8 DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27828-5
ISSN 2191-5512
(electronic)
ISBN 978-3-319-27828-5
(eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015959575 © The Author(s) 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by SpringerNature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland
Preface
The goal of this volume is to demonstrate the ways in which introductory economics textbooks are deceptive, insofar as they insist on singing the praises of free markets, keeping any demurrals muted. I demonstrate this stealthy quality by “deconstructing” line-by-line the well-known textbook by Paul Samuelson and William Nordhaus, Economics (19th edition) (hereafter S&N). Note, however, that it is by no means the worst available. It is just one example among the many similarly flawed textbooks. The inconvenient truth is that current principles textbooks in use have changed very little, if at all, after the financial crisis, although their authors should have realized that their textbooks are inadequate for the post-Meltdown world. It is amazing that competition has not created a more appropriate outcome. No less an authority than Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz declared prematurely after the crisis that “neoliberalism as a doctrine; market fundamentalism is dead.”1 Unfortunately, you would not know it by reading the textbooks in the field which influence millions of students, year in and year out. Actually, the courses based on these textbooks are “toxic” for a number of reasons, including: (a) They assume that people are rational, thereby comp
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