| Introduction | |
| I. The Economic Background | |
| One: Capitalism: Where Do We Come From? | 11 |
| Two: Three Great Economists | 26 |
| Three: A Bird's-Eye View of the Economy | 44 |
| Four: The Trend of Things | 56 |
| II. Macroeconomics--The Analysis of Prosperity and Recession | |
| Five: The GNP | 77 |
| Six: Saving and Investing | 86 |
| Seven: Passive Consumption, Active Investment | 96 |
| Eight: The Economics of the Public Sector | 107 |
| Nine: The Debate About Government | 120 |
| Ten: What Money Is | 130 |
| Eleven: How Money Works | 139 |
| Twelve: Inflation | 147 |
| Thirteen: Falling Behind: The Productivity Problem | 161 |
| III. Microeconomics--The Anatomy of the Market System | |
| Fourteen: How Markets Work | 173 |
| Fifteen: Where Markets Fail | 184 |
| Sixteen: A Look at Big Business | 195 |
| Seventeen: Rich and Poor | 207 |
| IV. The Rest of the World | |
| Eighteen: Pricing the Dollar | 223 |
| Nineteen: The Multinational Corporation | 239 |
| Twenty: Where Are We Headed? | 249 |
| Appendix: How the Banking System Works | 261 |
| Index | 271 |