History of Economic Thought

(4 Credits)

The expansion of the modern economy over the past 200 years is unprecedented and awesome. Liberals, socialists, Marxists, Keynesians, and supply-siders alike recognized this capacity, and together they overturned the Malthusian propositions of old. They provided the toolkits into which we reach when we redress economic crises and seek sustained improvement. We thought our way out of crisis after 1945 and 1973, after some spectacular failures in the 1930s. Arguably we are failing again today, with much of the industrialized world hovering between recession and tepid growth and enormous inequalities. This course lays out the schools of thought and makes economics accessible to anyone who makes the effort.