What is economics? -- Part I: Prices and markets. The role of prices -- Price controls -- An overview of prices -- Part II: Industry and commerce. The rise and fall of businesses -- The role of profits--and losses -- The economics of big business -- Regulation and anti-trust laws -- Market and non-market economies -- Part III: Work and pay. Productivity and pay -- Minimum wage laws -- Special problems in labor markets -- Part IV: Time and risk. Investment -- Stocks, bonds and insurance -- Special problems of time and risk -- Part V: The national economy. National output -- Money and the banking system -- Government functions -- Government finance -- Special problems in the national economy -- Part VI: The international economy. International trade -- International transfers of wealth -- International disparities in wealth -- Part VII: Special economic issues. Myths about markets -- "Non-economic" values -- The history of economics -- Parting thoughts

A presentation of economics in plain, straightforward language, without the jargon, graphs, or equations that dominate most other economic writings. This book is aimed at people with no previous study of the subject, namely the general public and beginning students in economics. Basic Economics illustrates economic principles with vivid examples from countries around the world, to make those principles memorable in a way that technical jargon or mathematical presentations may not. The fifth edition includes a new chapter on the reasons for large differences of income and wealth between nations. It also examines some popular explanations of these differences that will not stand up under scrutiny. This chapter, and the chapter on the history of economics itself, give the beginning student a larger context for understanding the role of economics.--Publisher information