Economic theories

Throughout history many thinkers have tried to understand what goes on when human beings are working, producing, saving, investing and trading goods. What vision of the world allows them to irreversibly transform nature? What moral issues are raised when appropriating land and means of production, when setting prices and lending money? What are the social implications of wage labour, profits, taxes, foreign trade and investments, and globalisation? These questions are as relevant today as they were centuries ago. If economics is a science, it is far from settled. Many incompatible theories promise to deliver sustainable prosperity and achieve our wellbeing. The course will confront them. The course will offer students enough information to make their own judgments, whether these theories failed through some improper implementation, whether they remain little known, waiting for the right circumstances to be adopted, or whether they appear utopian and outlandish. Realism should not be confused with conformism. [Tutor: Christian Michel].