This interdisciplinary study examines four major British and American novels in view of key concepts from the mainstream tradition of neoclassical economics. Studies of the novel widely address its connections to capitalism, yet literary critics and theorists rarely make reference to neoclassical perspectives, which have held a key position in the formal analysis of the marketplace for over a century. Lewis argues that this overlooked area of economic thought, with its emphasis on subjective value, individual agency, and utility maximization, points to a previously unrecognized and important coincidence of wants between economic and novelistic discourse. In each of the four readings, Lewis uses a single economic problem from neoclassical theory as a model for interpreting novelistic form and content as economic configurations. Topics include narrative deferral, detour, and return as a performance of capital formation and economic development in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe; the emergence of the creative, risk-taking entrepreneur in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; the representation of money in the romantic realization of trade in Herman Melville's Moby Dick; and a consumer utility theory of naturalist desire and indifference in Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie. Underscoring how neoclassical theory variously elaborates on and departs from other economic approaches and periods, the author also addresses the limitations of, and the possibilities of profitable exchange with, other critical frameworks for understanding literal and symbolic economies in narrative fiction more broadly.

An overview of recent theoretical and policy-related developments in monetary economics.

Introductory Microeconomics explains the basic principles of microeconomics, producer and consumer choices, resource markets, and government policies. The book describes the economics of exchange, such as the role of economic growth, factors that determine the amount and types of exchange, the supply and demand model of market operations, price setting, price changes, and the impact of one market on other markets. The text also explains market failures in terms of free market choice, externalities of failures, monopolies, as well as scarcity and choices leading to poverty. When economic policies are considered by the state, there are trade-offs that are necessary in the exchange. Before the government should make decisions, it always has to consider two opportunity costs, namely, 1) budget constraints, and 2) the opportunity cost of the funds spent in the private sector. For example (no. 1), if more money is spent on transfer payments, less will be left for education, national defense, infrastructure. Another example (no. 2) is when the government collects taxes, a direct loss in real income and utility among consumers will result. The book also presents real world economics in terms of the social security tax in the United States. The book can prove valuable for students of economics or business, sociologists, general readers interested in real-world economics, and policy makers involved in national economic development.

eBook: Economics 20th Edition

Principles of Economics is a university-level textbook offering a comprehensive, engaging, and easy-to-read overview of the field of economics that is valuable to the university student, the general reader, and the professional economist. Saifedean Ammous’ first book, The Bitcoin Standard, is an international best-seller that has been translated into 36 languages. The book garnered praise from respected scholars, successful entrepreneurs, professional athletes, and countless readers worldwide for its engaging and enlightening presentation of sophisticated economic and technical concepts, delivered in a style accessible to the general reader. With its sequel, The Fiat Standard, Ammous established himself as one of the world’s most effective communicators of economic ideas, whose writing resonates with a growing global readership. In Principles of Economics, his most ambitious and elaborate work to date, Ammous offers readers a potent antidote to the modern economics textbook. After two decades of learning and teaching economics at university level, Ammous became aware that most economic textbooks confuse more than they illuminate and most university students tasked with reading them learn very little that is useful and actionable. The culmination of four years' work, this book uses the underappreciated approach of the Austrian school of economics to introduce the principles, methods, and concepts of economics in a readable, engaging, and informative manner. Rather than relying on mathematical analysis of aggregates and arcane theoretical models, the book uses the clear written word to effectively illustrate key economic concepts. The book first presents the Austrian school method and the foundational concepts of value and time. With these foundations laid, the second part of the book explores how humans act individually to achieve their ends under scarcity—in other words, how humans economize. A chapter is dedicated to detailed overviews of labor, property, capital, technology, and energy, and each topic is accompanied by vivid examples explaining its relevance to the reader. The third part of the book examines economizing in the social context, with chapters examining trade, money, the market order, and capitalism—important concepts that are often shrouded by misconceptions in most modern treatments. The fourth part of the book presents the Austrian perspective on monetary economics, laying the groundwork through a detailed discussion of time preference, followed by a discussion of banking and credit, and the business cycle and its monetary origins. The final section of the book explains why respect for property rights in an extended market order is the basis for human civilization, how the market order protects against aggression, and the failures of monopoly provision of defense.

Introductory Economics deals with the national economy as a whole—macroeconomics, in terms of inflation and unemployment. The book also discusses individual economic decision-makers—microeconomics, in view of the problems of scarcity and choice. Macroeconomics uses the market model of demand and supply as a tool to analyze the causes of, and present some cures for modern economic ailments. The text examines the economics of government fiscal policies with the framework of an aggregate demand and supply model. The book compares monetary policy and fiscal policy, explains the monetarist model of economic activity, and also investigates the roles of money, credit, interest rates. These economic activities have international consequences such as in trade, exchange rates, and on prevailing and future national economic policies. In microeconomics, the book focuses on the economics of exchange, the market mechanisms that increase the gains from trade, and the problems of choice facing consumers and producers in a competitive market. The text also tackles the problems found in resource markets (labor, natural resources, energy), in market failure, as well as analyzes the role of government. Economists, sociologists, students of economics or business, general readers interested in real-world economics, and policy makers involved in national economic development will find the book valuable.