Economics in Two Lessons: Why Markets Work So Well, and Why They Can Fail So Badly - Couverture rigide

Quiggin, John

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0691154945 ISBN 13 : 9780691154947

Editeur : Princeton University Press, 2019

Synopsis

A masterful introduction to the key ideas behind the successes--and failures--of free-market economics

Since 1946, Henry Hazlitt's bestselling Economics in One Lesson has popularized the belief that economics can be boiled down to one simple lesson: market prices represent the true cost of everything. But one-lesson economics tells only half the story. It can explain why markets often work so well, but it can't explain why they often fail so badly--or what we should do when they stumble. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Samuelson quipped, "When someone preaches 'Economics in one lesson, ' I advise: Go back for the second lesson." In Economics in Two Lessons, John Quiggin teaches both lessons, offering a masterful introduction to the key ideas behind the successes--and failures--of free markets.

Economics in Two Lessons explains why market prices often fail to reflect the full cost of our choices to society as a whole. For example, every time we drive a car, fly in a plane, or flick a light switch, we contribute to global warming. But, in the absence of a price on carbon emissions, the costs of our actions are borne by everyone else. In such cases, government action is needed to achieve better outcomes.

Two-lesson economics means giving up the dogmatism of laissez-faire as well as the reflexive assumption that any economic problem can be solved by government action, since the right answer often involves a mixture of market forces and government policy. But the payoff is huge: understanding how markets actually work--and what to do when they don't.

Brilliantly accessible, Economics in Two Lessons unlocks the essential issues at the heart of any economic question.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

John Quiggin is the President's Senior Fellow in Economics at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. His previous book, Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk among Us (Princeton), has been translated into eight languages. He has written for the New York Times and the Economist, among other publications, and is a frequent blogger for Crooked Timber and on his own website: www.johnquiggin.com. Twitter @JohnQuiggin

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Princeton University Press
• Date d'édition: 2019
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0691154945
• ISBN 13: 9780691154947
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 408
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible