Whenever exams approach, I always find myself something “better” to do. This time, it was a lazy afternoon in Oxford and I, instead of preparing for my exams (which I eventually passed), went browsing through the shelves of a local bookshop. Sifting through the economics section, I saw a range of titles, from “The Economic Naturalist” to “Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism.” Attracted by the dimension of the latter book (how unusual, I thought: an economics textbook in pocket size!), I picked it up, started browsing it and decided to buy it.
Of all the books I have bought for myself over the years, this is definitely one of the most useful ones I have read. Rather than being one of those books that try to present economics as a universal science, capable of explaining everything from a few absolute truths (like – judging only from the title – the other book that picked up my attention on the bookshop’s shelf likely promised to do), “Economics for Everyone” showed me a side of economics I had never experimented. All of the economics courses I took as an undergrad focused on neoclassical economics. The problem, however, is that I was never told that neoclassical economics is just one possible explanation of economic phenomena. “Economics for Everyone” made me understand this.
From the very beginning, Jim Stanford (a New School graduate and trade union economist) approaches the subject in a critical manner, emphasising the fact that economics should be a more democratic subject of study, where the visions of all segments of society ought to be meaningful for the purpose of seeking solutions to everyday problems. Economics is not just the sacred knowledge of a caste of economic gurus. Instead, Stanford advocates a more grassroots approach to economics and a more critical stance vis-à-vis capitalism, as – may I add – capitalism is there to try and make our lives more prosperous, not vice versa: if it doesn’t work, we must have the courage to challenge it, and advocate its reform.
Content-wise, the book presents an incredibly accessible overview of macroeconomic topics. In particular, it starts from presenting a basic “closed” economy featuring just workers and firms, and later goes on adding players to this picture, such as governments, the environment, the financial sector and foreign trade. In so doing, however, Stanford puts his education as a heterodox economics to good use, bring to bear on the various problems a wealth of different perspectives: Keynesian, Marxist and feminist, to name those I was able explicitly to recognise myself. I was very much impressed by the novelty of this book, particularly as I was reading it side-by-side with “Plunder: When the Rule of Law is Illegal” by Ugo Mattei and Laura Nader, where a sharp criticism is made of modern day “technological mentality” when it comes to economic problems and policy. In other words, economic problems, and the related “treatments”, are presented as a “technological” issue, meaning one that we must delegate to “experts”, but which we may not really have a saying on.
Stanford, just like Ugo Mattei and Laura Nader, offers a very strong and credible voice against the “technological” use of knowledge in economics, in favor of a more participatory and democratic approach in suggesting policy conclusions vis-à-vis the problems of the modern world. I highly recommend this book!
Title: “Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism”
Author: Jim Stanford
Publisher: Pluto Press
Year: 2008
Available on amazon.com ($), amazon.co.uk (£) and deastore.com (€)
