Economics by Economist, The -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Copyright Page Contents About the editor Contributors Introduction: the everyday science Part 1. Money, Banks and Crashes

From evil roots to green shoots 1. Money

Monetary beginnings: on the origin of specie Strange money: shillings, cows and mobile phones The dollar: the once and future currency: Bitcoin and digital currencies: a new specie China’s currency future: trading the yuan

2. A history of financial crashes

1792: the foundations of modern finance 1825: the original emerging-markets crisis 1857: the first global crash 1907: the bankers’ panic 1929–33: the big one

3. Lessons from the financial crisis

The origins of the crisis: crash course The dangers of debt: lending weight Monetary policy after the crash: controlling interest Stimulus v austerity: sovereign doubts Making banks safe: calling to accounts

4. Building competitiveness

Taxi markets: a fare fight Labour markets: insider aiding Efficient infrastructure: ports in the storm Job market frictions: mobile moans

Part 2. Firms, Jobs and Pay

How the world works now 5. Evolving firms

Ronald Coase: one of the giants Surf’s up: merger waves Megafirms: land of the corporate giants The goliaths: big firms and volatility Big firms and competition: corporate sardines 105

6. Unemployment

Youth unemployment: generation jobless Boosting employment: go for the churn Inflation and jobs: the price of getting back to work

7. Pay

Pay and economic growth: a shrinking slice Pay and leisure time: nice work if you can get out Minimum wages: the argument in the floor Wages and performance: making pay work Shares as pay: turning workers into capitalists

8. Inequality

Long-run inequality: all men are created unequal Redistribution: inequality v growth Surnames and social mobility: nomencracy Inequality and crashes: body of evidence Firm size and pay: the bigger, the less fair Outlaw economics: shifting income from rich to poor

9. Secular stagnation

The stagnation hypothesis: stagnant thinking Demography and growth: no country for young people Escaping stagnation: still, not stagnant

Part 3. The Future of Economics

The elderly versus the robots 10. Reinventing economics

The man who invented economics: Petty impressive Post-crisis economics: Keynes’s new heirs How GDP is measured: boundary problems Joy to the world: is GDP growth the right goal?

11. New firms, new economics

Silicon Valley economists: micro stars, macro effects The cutting edge: meet the market shapers Uber’s economics: pricing the surge Hidden in the long tail: the boost from e-commerce

12. The economics of behaviour

Crime: fine and punishment Noise pollution: shhhh! Shaping behaviour: nudge nudge, think think The lottery: herd mentality The economics of meetings: meeting up

13. Tomorrow’s economic challenges

Health-care costs: an incurable disease Dwindling R&D: arrested development Big Pharma: zombie patents Innovation: has the ideas machine broken down? Demography: the age invaders

14. Robot economics

Machines and work: robocolleague The future of jobs: the onrushing wave

Bibliography Index