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PLSC 270

Capitalism: Success, Crisis, and Reform

Undergraduate · Historical course

Fall 2009

Topics

  • Exploding Worlds and Course Introduction
  • Thomas Malthus and Inevitable Poverty
  • Counting the Fingers of Adam Smith's Invisible Hand
  • Karl Marx, Joseph Schumpeter, and an Economic System Incapable of Coming to Rest
  • Property, Freedom, and the Essential Job of Government
  • Rise of the Joint Stock Corporation
  • Can You Sell a Scheme for Operating on Beating Hearts and Make a Business of It?
  • Mortal Life Cycle of a Great Technology
  • Guest Lecture by Jim Alexander: Managing the Crooked E
  • Guest Lecture by Richard Medley: Entrepreneurship in Business Information
  • Guest Lecture by Will Goetzmann: Institutions and Incentives in Mortgages and Mortgage-Backed Securities
  • Accountability and Greed in Investment Banking
  • The Mortgage Meltdown in Cleveland
  • The Political and Judicial Elements of American Capitalism
  • Mass Affluence Comes to the Western World
  • Braudel's Bell Jar
  • The Case of Mister Balram Halwai
  • Microfinance in South India
  • Plight of the Bottom Billion
  • Policy Targets for Capitalist Development
  • Guest Lecture by Paolo Zanonni, Part I
  • Guest Lecture by Paolo Zanonni, Part II
  • Marrying the Devil in Texas
  • Capitalist Enterprise and Clean Water for a Bolivian City

Readings

  • Adiga, Aravind. The White Tiger. Harper Collins India, 2008.
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  • Buckley, Christopher. Thank You for Smoking. Random House, 1994. (optional text)
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  • Chandler, Alfred D. The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business. Belknap Press, 1977.
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  • Clark, Gregory. Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World. Princeton University Press, 2007.
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  • Collier, Paul. The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. Oxford University Press, 2007.
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  • De Soto, Hernando. The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else. Basic Books, 2000.
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  • Hayek, Friedrich. The Constitution of Liberty. University of Chicago Press, 1960.
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  • Marx, Karl and Frederick Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party (The Communist Manifesto). orig. pub. 1848.
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  • Posner, Richard A. A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of '08 and the Descent into Depression. Harvard University Press, 2009.
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  • Schumpeter, Joseph. Capitalism, Socialism, & Democracy. orig. pub. 1942.
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  • Smith, Adam. Wealth of Nations, orig. pub. 1776.
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  • Selected case studies from Harvard Business School and Yale School of Management
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Sources