[PDF] Americas Free Market Myths eBook

Author : Joseph Shaanan
Publisher : Springer
Page : 300 pages
File Size : 49,28 MB
Release : 2017-05-26
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 3319506366

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This book describes and refutes thirteen ideas involving free market principles and the US economic system, arguing that these (mostly familiar) ideas are myths. The myths are deeply ingrained in the United States' self-image and in political discourse, and are hailed as indisputable, scientifically grounded truths. Unfortunately, an economy dominated by giant corporations bears little resemblance to a free market. So why is so much effort and expense devoted to disseminating these stories? The answer is simple. The different myths generate the recommendation that the system's rewards should flow upward to corporations and a small group of wealthy and politically influential people. The myths help entrench existing economic and political power while distancing America from a more productive and widely beneficial form of capitalism.

Author : Bernard E. Harcourt
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 40,27 MB
Release : 2011-05-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0674059360

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It is widely believed today that the free market is the best mechanism ever invented to efficiently allocate resources in society. Just as fundamental as faith in the free market is the belief that government has a legitimate and competent role in policing and the punishment arena. This curious incendiary combination of free market efficiency and the Big Brother state has become seemingly obvious, but it hinges on the illusion of a supposedly natural order in the economic realm. The Illusion of Free Markets argues that our faith in “free markets” has severely distorted American politics and punishment practices. Bernard Harcourt traces the birth of the idea of natural order to eighteenth-century economic thought and reveals its gradual evolution through the Chicago School of economics and ultimately into today’s myth of the free market. The modern category of “liberty” emerged in reaction to an earlier, integrated vision of punishment and public economy, known in the eighteenth century as “police.” This development shaped the dominant belief today that competitive markets are inherently efficient and should be sharply demarcated from a government-run penal sphere. This modern vision rests on a simple but devastating illusion. Superimposing the political categories of “freedom” or “discipline” on forms of market organization has the unfortunate effect of obscuring rather than enlightening. It obscures by making both the free market and the prison system seem natural and necessary. In the process, it facilitated the birth of the penitentiary system in the nineteenth century and its ultimate culmination into mass incarceration today.

Author : Mark Anthony Martinez
Publisher : Kumarian Press
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 25,54 MB
Release : 2009
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1565492676

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* Explains how the 2008 financial meltdown came about and how to revitalize global and domestic economies * Shows how capitalist economies developed and why the state matters in their functioning Free market purists claim that the state is an inefficient institution that does little for society beyond providing stability and protection. The activities related to distributing resources and economic growth, they say, are better left to the invisible hand of the marketplace. These notions now seem tragically misguided in the wake of the 2008 market collapse and bailout. Mark Martinez describes how the flawed myth of the "invisible hand" distorted our understanding of how modern capitalist markets developed and actually work. Martinez draws from history to illustrate that political processes and the state are not only instrumental in making capitalist markets work but that there would be no capitalist markets or wealth creation without state intervention. He brings his story up to the present day to show how the seeds of an unprecedented government intervention in the financial markets were sown in past actions. The Myth of the Free Market is a fascinating and accessible introduction to comparative economic systems as well as an incisive refutation of the standard mantras of neoclassical free market economic theory.

Author : Bernard E. Harcourt
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 13,58 MB
Release : 2012-11-12
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0674971329

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It is widely believed today that the free market is the best mechanism ever invented to efficiently allocate resources in society. Just as fundamental as faith in the free market is the belief that government has a legitimate and competent role in policing and the punishment arena. This curious incendiary combination of free market efficiency and the Big Brother state has become seemingly obvious, but it hinges on the illusion of a supposedly natural order in the economic realm. The Illusion of Free Markets argues that our faith in “free markets” has severely distorted American politics and punishment practices. Bernard Harcourt traces the birth of the idea of natural order to eighteenth-century economic thought and reveals its gradual evolution through the Chicago School of economics and ultimately into today’s myth of the free market. The modern category of “liberty” emerged in reaction to an earlier, integrated vision of punishment and public economy, known in the eighteenth century as “police.” This development shaped the dominant belief today that competitive markets are inherently efficient and should be sharply demarcated from a government-run penal sphere. This modern vision rests on a simple but devastating illusion. Superimposing the political categories of “freedom” or “discipline” on forms of market organization has the unfortunate effect of obscuring rather than enlightening. It obscures by making both the free market and the prison system seem natural and necessary. In the process, it facilitated the birth of the penitentiary system in the nineteenth century and its ultimate culmination into mass incarceration today.

Author : Thomas Philippon
Publisher : Belknap Press
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 39,13 MB
Release : 2019
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0674237544

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American markets, once a model for the world, are giving up on competition. Thomas Philippon blames the unchecked efforts of corporate lobbyists. Instead of earning profits by investing and innovating, powerful firms use political pressure to secure their advantages. The result is less efficient markets, leading to higher prices and lower wages.

Author : Josef Joffe
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 32,59 MB
Release : 2014
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0871404494

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"While it may be catnip for the media to play up America as a has-been, Josef Joffe, a ... German commentator and Stanford University academic, [proposes] that Declinism is not a cold-eyed diagnosis but a device in the style of the ancient prophets ... Gloom is a prophecy that must be believed so that it will turn out wrong. Joffe [posits that] 'economic miracles' that propelled the rising tide of challengers flounder against their own limits. Hardly confined to Europe alone, Declinism has also been an especially nifty career builder for American politicians, among them Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan, who all rode into the White House by hawking 'the end is near'"--Dust jacket flap.

Author : Ha-Joon Chang
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 39,72 MB
Release : 2011-01-02
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1608193586

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INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER "For anyone who wants to understand capitalism not as economists or politicians have pictured it but as it actually operates, this book will be invaluable."-Observer (UK) If you've wondered how we did not see the economic collapse coming, Ha-Joon Chang knows the answer: We didn't ask what they didn't tell us about capitalism. This is a lighthearted book with a serious purpose: to question the assumptions behind the dogma and sheer hype that the dominant school of neoliberal economists-the apostles of the freemarket-have spun since the Age of Reagan. Chang, the author of the international bestseller Bad Samaritans, is one of the world's most respected economists, a voice of sanity-and wit-in the tradition of John Kenneth Galbraith and Joseph Stiglitz. 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism equips readers with an understanding of how global capitalism works-and doesn't. In his final chapter, "How to Rebuild the World," Chang offers a vision of how we can shape capitalism to humane ends, instead of becoming slaves of the market.

Author : Naomi Oreskes
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 577 pages
File Size : 38,15 MB
Release : 2023-02-21
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1635573580

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"A carefully researched work of intellectual history, and an urgently needed political analysis." --Jane Mayer “[A] scorching indictment of free market fundamentalism ... and how we can change, before it's too late.”-Esquire, Best Books of Winter 2023 The bestselling authors of Merchants of Doubt offer a profound, startling history of one of America's most tenacious--and destructive--false ideas: the myth of the "free market." In their bestselling book Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway revealed the origins of climate change denial. Now, they unfold the truth about another disastrous dogma: the “magic of the marketplace.” In the early 20th century, business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies set out to build a new American orthodoxy: down with “big government” and up with unfettered markets. With startling archival evidence, Oreskes and Conway document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor. They detail the ploys that turned hardline economists Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman into household names; recount the libertarian roots of the Little House on the Prairie books; and tune into the General Electric-sponsored TV show that beamed free-market doctrine to millions and launched Ronald Reagan's political career. By the 1970s, this propaganda was succeeding. Free market ideology would define the next half-century across Republican and Democratic administrations, giving us a housing crisis, the opioid scourge, climate destruction, and a baleful response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Only by understanding this history can we imagine a future where markets will serve, not stifle, democracy.

Author : Kenneth L. Fisher
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 227 pages
File Size : 11,20 MB
Release : 2013-01-29
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1118445015

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Exposes the truth about common investing myths and misconceptions and shows you how the truth shall set you free—to reap greater long-term and short-term gains Everybody knows that a strong dollar equals a strong economy, bonds are safer than stocks, gold is a safe investment and that high PEs signal high risk...right? While such "common-sense" rules of thumb may work for a time as investment strategies, as New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Ken Fisher, vividly demonstrates in this wise, informative, wholly entertaining new book, they'll always let you down in the long run. Ken exposes some of the most common—and deadly—myths investors swear by, and he demonstrates why the rules-of-thumb approach to investing may be robbing you of the kinds returns you hope for. Dubbed by Investment Advisor magazine one of the 30 most influential individuals of the last three decades, Fisher is Chairman, and CEO of a global money management firm with over $32 billion under management Fisher's Forbes column, "Portfolio Strategy," has been an extremely popular fixture in Forbes for more than a quarter century thanks to his many high-profile calls Brings together the best "bunks" by Wall Street's Master Debunker in a fun, easy-to-digest, bite-size format More than just a list of myths, Fisher meticulously explains of why each commonly held belief or strategy is dead wrong and how damaging it can be to your financial health Armed with this book, investors can immediately identify major errors they may be committing and adjust their strategies for greater investing success

Author : Godfrey Hodgson
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 35,87 MB
Release : 2009
Category : Exceptionalism
ISBN : 9780300125702

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The idea that the United States is destined to spread its unique gifts of democracy and capitalism to other countries is dangerous for Americans and for the rest of the world, warns Godfrey Hodgson in this provocative book. Hodgson, a shrewd and highly respected British commentator, argues that America is not as exceptional as it would like to think; its blindness to its own history has bred a complacent nationalism and a disastrous foreign policy that has isolated and alienated it from the global community. Tracing the development of America’s high self regard from the early days of the republic to the present era, Hodgson demonstrates how its exceptionalism has been systematically exaggerated and—in recent decades—corrupted. While there have been distinct and original elements in America’s history and political philosophy, notes Hodgson, these have always been more heavily influenced by European thought and experience than Americans have been willing to acknowledge. A stimulating and timely assessment of how America’s belief in its exceptionalism has led it astray, this book is mandatory reading for its citizens, admirers, and detractors.