What does GDP measure? How was it constructed and how did it become so important? What are alternatives? A historical introduction into the critique of GDP as measure of economic welfare. 2015 Level: beginner Dirk Philipsen on GDP Dirk Philipsen The RSA Galbraith first explores the social darwinism of Herbert Spencer and others that served as apology for the highly unequal distribution of wealth in the US at the end of the 19th century and naturalized differences in wealth by appealing to the concept of natural selection of the fittest. Then some instances of the unscrupulous business practices (i.e. robberies) of the American railroad tycoons and other business magnates are recounted. Lastly, Galbraith lines out some of the arguments of Thorstein Veblen, who delegitimized and ridiculed the business and leisure activities of the rich by putting them in the same category as predatory and ritualized practices of primitive or ancient societies. Level: beginner The Age of Uncertainty Episode 2 - The Manners and Morals of High Capitalism John Kenneth Galbraith BBC, CBC, KCET and OECA The website contains a vast amount of information on the history of economic thought. It presents thinkers, their main works (and links to those works) and schools of thought which are sorted by political economy schools, neoclassical schools, alternative schools as well as thematic schools. Level: advanced The history of economic thought website Gonçalo L. Fonseca Gonçalo L. Fonseca The documentary proceeds along the lines of Karl Marx' biography, inquiring into his workings as a journalist, social scientist, revolutionary and historian and his travels through Europe. In chronological order historical events, such as the 1848 revolution or the Paris Commune as well as concepts such as dialectics, the labour theory of value or the reform-revolution debate are revisited. The documentary is narrated by John Kenneth Galbraith and by an actor, who plays Marx and recites quotes from his writings. 1977 Level: beginner The Age of Uncertainty Episode 3 Karl Marx The Massive Dissent John Kenneth Galbraith BBC, CBC, KCET and OECA First historical instances of colonialism such as the crusades are revisited. Then a lengthy account of the colonial experience of the Spanish Kingdom in South America and of the British Empire in India is given. The Indian case is illustrated with large amounts of archival materials from a colonial administrator. There the workings of the colonial bureaucracy and law and its (positive) achievements as well as the ignorance and arrogance of the external rulers are demonstrated. After narrating the Indian independence to some depth some recent colonial wars (Algeria, Vietnam, Congo, Angola) are briefly examined. In the end, the impact of colonialism on current, i.e. 1970s, (economic) international relations is discussed. The general tenor is that colonialism is a dysfunctional system. Still, agency is mostly placed with the empire rather than with the ruled. 1977 Level: beginner The Age of Uncertainty Episode 4 The Colonial Idea John Kenneth Galbraith BBC, CBC, KCET and OECA The documentary recounts the history of the first World War and gives a biography of Lenin. The concept of imperialism is briefly explored and it is concluded that by the end of world war one the old certainties and old ruling alliances between aristocracy and traditional capitalists were broken up. 1977 Level: beginner The Age of Uncertainty Episode 5 Lenin and The Great Ungluing John Kenneth Galbraith BBC, CBC, KCET and OECA John K. Galbraith recounts episodes in the history of money such as the creation of the bank of Amsterdam, John Law's fraudulent Bank Royal, the inception of the Bank of England and of the Federal Reserve to illustrate concepts such as money creation by commercial banks, the bank rate, open market operations or the money supply in general. The emotions, myths and struggles surrounding money are addressed and explained in a clear and consistent manner. 1977 Level: beginner The Age of Uncertainty Episode 6 The Rise and Fall of Money John Kenneth Galbraith BBC, CBC, KCET and OECA John K. Galbraith tells the economic history of a couple of economies (mostly UK, US and to a lesser extent Germany) from the end of the first world war until the Bretton Woods conference. He also provides a biography of John M. Keynes and outlines some central ideas of Keynes such as the possibility of an underemployment equilibrium. Galbraith complements the historical remarks by the biographical experiences he made in economic management (and in engaging with Keynes) serving as deputy head of the Office for Price administration during the second world war. 1977 Level: beginner The Age of Uncertainty Episode 7 The Mandarin Revolution John Kenneth Galbraith BBC, CBC, KCET and OECA Galbraith gives an overview of economic history from the 18th century until the end of the 19th century covering issues such as the industrial revolution the enclosure of the Scottish highlands the Irish famine and the colonization of North America Additionally the ideas of economists such as Smith Ricardo Malthus … Level: beginner The Age of Uncertainty Episode 1 - The Prophets and Promise of Classical Capitalism John Kenneth Galbraith BBC, CBC, KCET and OECA This historic timeline presents economic events, economic thinkers and schools of thought from the 18th century until the 2007/2008 financial and economic crisis with short texts on the respective event or perspective. 2017 Level: beginner Economics: An Illustrated Timeline Heske van Doornen theminsky.org In this lecture, Prof. Israel Kirzner presents a historical overview of the development of the Austrian school. The talk covers a timespan from the beginnings of the Austrian School in the early 1870's till just before the more recent 'revival' of the School in the mid-1970's. 2011 Level: beginner The History of Austrian Economics Israel Kirzner Foundation for Economic Education - YouTube In this tenth lecture in INET’s “How and How Not to Do Economics,” Robert Skidelsky argues that there are two main reasons why economists should study history. 2019 Level: beginner Economic History Robert Skidelsky INET A historical glimpse of how economists of the 19th century debated the usefulness of mathematics to economics 2020 Level: beginner Mathematical Economics in the 19th Century Nicolà Bezzola Exploring Economics This lecture of the anthropologist David Graeber gives a brief introduction to the thoughts of his 2011 published book Debt: The First 5000 Years. 2012 Level: beginner Debt: The First 5,000 Years David Graeber Talks at Google “Economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses1.” This is how Lionel Robbins came to define economics in the early 1930s and there is a good chance that many of you heard a variant of this definition in your first Economics 101 lecture. 2021 Level: beginner What is “Economics”? Anas Abu Exploring Economics This course introduces students to political economy and the history of economic thought. We will cover the core ideas in various schools of economic thought, positioning them in the historical and institutional context in which they were developed. In particular, we will cover some economic ideas from the ancient world and the middle ages; the enlightenment; the emergence of and main ideas in classical political economy (Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, and others); Marx, Mill, and Keynes; European versus American economic thought through history; the rise of mathematical economics; economic theories around state-managed economies versus socialism; Austrian economics; behavioral economics; and the future of economics. 2020 Level: beginner Political Economy and the History of Economic Thought Alyssa Schneebaum Vienna University of Economics and Business The module is designed to first present some of the main schools of thought from a historical and methodological perspective. Each week we explore and critically assess the main tenants of each school of thought. In the second part of the module we link history of economic thought and methodology to a specific and contemporary economic question. The second part allows you to engage with current economic issues with an awareness of methodology and methodological differences and with some knowledge of the history of economics. 2019 Level: beginner History of Economic Thought Dr. Jeff Powell University of Greenwich Mark Carney explains how we have come to esteem financial value over human value and how we have gone from market economies to market societies, how economic theory foundation affect the society as a whole, how we understand our world today and ultimately how this affects our lives. 2020 Level: beginner How We Get What We Value Mark Carney BBC The historian Nicholas Mulder talks about the Western sanctions against Russia in the context of the Ukraine Crisis. He explains that the current sanctions are unprecedented in terms of size, speed and scope, expected consequences as well as potential drawbacks and problems. 2022 Level: beginner Can Sanctions Stop Russia? Nicholas Mulder, interviewed by Annie Lowrey The Atlantic Photo by Kaitlyn Ashley on Unsplash The world is still feeling reverberations from the financial crisis of 2008 foreseen by neither politicians nor economists The history of capitalism has been punctuated by major crises exposing the fragility of our entire economic system How has capitalism despite these ruptures managed to … 2012 Level: beginner The Future of Capitalism Anatole Kaletsky n.a. A free online course at Masters-level will enable you to understand the past, present and future role of money in society. Level: advanced Money and Society Jem Bendell, Matthew Slater University of Cumbria Reflecting his own concerns about the contribution economics could make to the betterment of society, Eli Ginzberg published this study of Smith's humanitarian views on commerce, industrialism, and labor. Written for his doctoral degree at Columbia University, and originally published as The House of Adam Smith, the book is divided into two parts. 2002 Level: advanced Adam Smith and the Founding of Market Economics Eli Ginzberg Transaction Publishers, U.S.A. John Harvey's accessible book provides a non-technical yet rigorous introduction to various schools of thought in economics. Premised on the idea that economic thinking has been stunted by the almost complete rejection of anything outside the mainstream, the author hopes that this volume will open readers' minds and lead them in new and productive directions. 2016 Level: advanced Contending Perspectives in Economics John T. Harvey Edward Elgar Publishing Hunt (economics, U. of Utah) provides a concise history of the rise and triumph of capitalism, centering mainly on England until 1800 and the U.S. since 1800. He traces the evolution of some of the most significant institutions of capitalism, analyzes the recurring ideological defenses and the radical critiques of capitalism, and examines intellectual developments which were occurring at the same time. 2003 Level: advanced Property and Prophets E. K. Hunt M.E. Sharpe Challenging the Mainstream in the Twentieth Century Economics is a contested academic discipline between neoclassical economics and a collection of alternative approaches such as Marxism radical economics Institutional economics Post Keynesian economics and others that can collectively be called heterodox economics Because of the dominance of neoclassical economics the existence … 2011 Level: advanced A History of Heterodox Economics Frederic S. Lee Routledge

In the graveyard of economic ideology, dead ideas still stalk the land.

The recent financial crisis laid bare many of the assumptions behind market liberalism—the theory that market-based solutions are always best, regardless of the problem. For decades, their advocates dominated mainstream economics, and their influence created a system where an unthinking faith in markets led many to view speculative investments as fundamentally safe. 2012 Level: beginner Zombie Economics John Quiggin Princeton University Press The age of the contemplative economist-scholar—at home equally in classical languages, economic history, the history of ideas, and mathematical theory—has passed. The history of economics as a subdiscipline has lost touch with the mainstream study of economics. InThe Future of the History of Economics, internationally known scholars from ten countries provide a comparative assessment of the subdiscipline. 2002 Level: advanced The Future of the History of Economics Eliot Roy Weintraub Duke University Press Examine what would happen if we were to deploy blockchain technology at the sovereign level and use it to create a decentralized cashless economy. This book explains how finance and economics work today, and how the convergence of various technologies related to the financial sector can help us find solutions to problems, such as excessive debt creation, banks getting too big to fail, and shadow banking. 2017 Level: advanced The Blockchain Alternative Bheemaiah, Kariappa Apress Microeconomics: A Critical Companion offers students a clear and concise exposition of mainstream microeconomics from a heterodox perspective. 2016 Level: beginner Microeconomics - A Critical Companion Ben Fine Pluto Press Macroeconomics is fundamental to our understanding of how the world functions today. But too often our understanding is based on orthodox, dogmatic analysis. 2016 Level: beginner Macroeconomics - A Critical Companion Ben Fine Pluto Press In this classic work of economic history and social theory, Karl Polanyi analyzes the economic and social changes brought about by the "great transformation" of the Industrial Revolution. 2001 Level: advanced The Great Transformation Karl Polanyi Beacon Press This book offers the first systematic analysis of economic thought concerning war. 2020 Level: advanced War in Economic Theories over Time Renata Allio Springer Nature