Economics: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

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He discusses inequities in the distribution of wealth between the two countries he considers in addition to growing disparities between rich and poor in the United States and other developed nations. e. as a stage of development) or indirectly by supporting “free trade” (which actually means leading countries “kicking away the ladder” because lower countries cannot nurture their infant industries from global competition). Instead, it gives a brief but incredibly insightful overview of the language and logic of economics.

Unlike some scientists who might try to minimize ethical, philosophical questions, Dasgupta is quite clear that ethical commitments are a driving force behind economics and politics. Dasgupta was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his work in economics and has written many important books and studies. Dasgupta introduces the reader to two fictitious girls, , Becky, 10, who lives with her parents in the American Midwest and Desta, 10, who lives with her family in a village in tropical southwest Ethiopia. Going from the machinery to the applications and back again to refine what he's set up obviously makes a great deal of sense and gives Dasgupta more mileage to handle the social issues he delves into, particularly in the last two chapters (since, after all, economics is a social science that requires models to align with an informed view of human affairs). While the author ambles through a few pertinent paragraphs in the first half of the book, the second half is almost completely divorced from the subject matter.Dasgupta covers the subject broadly, as is appropriate for a short monograph of this sort, with the narrative held together by contrasting the circumstances of two similar imaginary girls on opposite ends of the world's economic landscape.

As in, that stuff that happened a long, long time ago, but there is no modern history because we now have the science of (liberal) economics and political "independence"/ "democracy"! ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. They have three children, Zubeida Dasgupta-Clark (an educational psychologist), Shamik (a philosophy professor) and Aisha (who works on reproductive health in poor countries). If you are an economist by nature or trade, you will probably find this book more enjoyable than I did.The content is very intriguing and Dasgupta takes a more political/philosophical approach to economics, which is very appealing in my opinion. I read this book because I wanted to understand in concise and authoritative terms some of the basic concepts and features within economics - national debts, credit ratings, interest rates etc. My only criticism is that some parts of the book may be too technical for the broad audience intended by the publishers and could avail from the inclusion of more supporting diagrams. The contradictions became so severe that pro-capitalists economics had to throw out the Classical framework entirely, only keeping its pro-capitalist conclusions!

Of course, one should ask why it is that the Europeans managed to colonize the tropics; why colonization didn’t take place the other way round.History, law, political science, and ecology are all touched upon to enrich the illustration of economic ideas and concepts.