Fairhaven 212c Introduction to Political Economy – Winter 2011

 

Class Meets:  T,Th 10 – 11:50am, Fairhaven 307

Instructor:  Marjolein van der Veen

Office: Fairhaven 341.  Office hours:  T,Th 1 – 2:30pm & by appointment

Office phone number:  360-650-6314.  Email:  Marjolein.vanderveen@wwu.edu

 

Course Description:

 

This course will explore the topic of political economy at an introductory level.  It will provide a survey of the history of political economy, examining Adam Smith’s praise of free markets and David Ricardo’s promotion of free trade, Karl Marx’s critiques of capitalism, Veblen’s focus on conspicuous consumption and the leisure class, Keynes’s ideas to bring capitalist economies out of the Great Depression, and Galbraith’s insights on the affluent society.  The course will also help students acquire a basic literacy in economics, by examining the relevant concepts from microeconomics, macroeconomics, and international trade.  In the latter part of the class, the concepts from the first part will be applied to understanding the financial and economic crisis of 2007 - ?.  We will analyze the crisis from the perspectives of contemporary neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian theorists, and examine its global dimensions.  We will use both readings and film to learn about the various elements of the crisis. 

 

 

Required Texts:

 

Sackrey, Charles, Geoffrey Schneider, & Janet Knoedler, Introduction to Political Economy, 6th edition, Boston: Dollars&Sense, 2010.

 

Weaver, Frederick S., Economic Literacy: Basic Economics with an Attitude, 3rd edition, Lantham, MD:  Rowman & Littlefield, 2010.

 

Magdoff & Yates, The ABCs of the Economic Crisis, Monthly Review Press, 2009.

 

 

Additional readings will be assigned (available on-line, and/or distributed in class).

 

 

Assignments:

 

• Attendance, participation, and engagement with the readings

 

• Weekly homework assignments, due in class on Thursdays.

 

• Two essay papers (about 4-6 pages, typed, double spaced), one due on Feb. 10th, and the other due at the end of the quarter on March 8th.  The first paper will be on Smith, Marx, Veblen, Keynes, or Galbraith, for which you will need to do some additional reading of the primary sources by these authors.  The second paper will be on some aspect of the economic crisis of 2007.

 

• Class presentations (during the section on the financial/economic crisis.)

 

 

Attendance Policies and Evaluation Criteria:

 

As per Fairhaven procedures:  Attendance and participation is required at every seminar.  Students who miss more than 3 classes may lose credit for the course.  Doing the readings in advance is necessary in order to contribute to the discussions during the seminar.

 

Disability Accommodations:  If you have a disability for which you need special accommodations, you need to inform the instructor at the beginning of the quarter, and you need to work with the Disability Resource Services.  The DRS will provide the instructor with information on the nature of accommodations to be granted.  The DRS can be reached at: drs@wwu.edu, or by telephone at: (360) 650-3083 (voice) or (360) 650-3725 (TTY).

 

Evaluation:  Your evaluation will be based on:  class attendance and participation, successful completion of all assignments, improvement in writing skills, contributions to discussions and discussion facilitation, quality of written work in general (including depth of analysis), meeting deadlines, and overall growth during the quarter.  At the end of the quarter, you will write a self-evaluation that should reflect on each of these elements.  It is a good idea to keep a journal throughout the quarter, where you note down some of the highlights and your impressions of the class.  This will help you write your self-evaluation. 

 

 

Course schedule

 

 

Week 1:  Introduction

 

Jan. 4:  Introduction

 

Jan. 6: Read Sackrey, et. al (SSK), ch. 1, pp. 1 – 23.

 

Watch:  Frontline’s “The Warning,” Oct. 20, 2009, (60 min.)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/

 

 

 

Week 2:  Adam Smith

 

Jan. 11: Read SSK, ch. 2, pp. 25-50

 

Jan. 13:  Read Weaver, Introduction, ch.1 (pp. 1 – 35), and ch. 2 (pp. 49 – 75).  (Topics:  Demand and Supply, Equilibrium, Perfect Competition)

 

Recommended: Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book 1: chs. 2 & 7 (“Of the Principle which gives occasion to the Division of Labour,” and “Of the natural and market Price of Commodities,”) and Book 4: ch. 2 (“Of Restraints upon the Importation…”), available at: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/smith-adam/works/wealth-of-nations/

 

 

 

Week 3:  Karl Marx

 

Jan. 18: Read SSK, ch. 2, pp. 51 - 82

 

Jan. 20: Read Weaver, finish ch. 2 pp 75  - 96.  (Topics:  Income Distribution, Inequality)

 

Recommended:  Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto, ch. 1, available at: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm#007 ,  Wage Labor and Capital, http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/index.htm

 

 

 

Week 4: Veblen

 

Jan. 25: Read SSK, ch. 4, pp. 83 - 104

 

Jan. 27: Read Weaver, ch. 3, pp. 99 – 134.

 

Recommended:  Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class, chs II & IV (“Pecuniary Emulation,” and “Conspicuous Consumption”), available at: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/833/833-h/833-h.htm#2HCH0002 and http://www.gutenberg.org/files/833/833-h/833-h.htm#2HCH0004

 

 

 

Week 5:  Keynes

 

Feb. 1: Read SSK, ch. 5, pp. 105 – 131.

 

Feb. 3: Read Weaver, ch. 4, pp. 143 – 177.  (Topics:  GDP, Effective Demand, Fiscal and Monetary Policies, Business Cycles)

 

Recommended:  John Maynard Keynes, “The Great Slump of 1930,” available at: http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/keynes-slump/keynes-slump-00-h.html

 

Watch:  Economics USA:  John Maynard Keynes, (30 min.) viewable for free on-line at: http://www.learner.org/resources/series79.html, and/or Commanding Heights, Episode I: The Battle of Ideas (chs. 1 – 6, about 40 min.), http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/lo/story/ch_menu.html

 

 

 

Week 6: Galbraith

 

Feb. 8: Read SSK, ch. 7, pp. 161 – 184.

 

Feb. 10: Read Weaver, chs. 5 & 6, pp. 181 – 235. (Topics:  comparative advantage, exchange rates, balance of payments, trade policy)

 

Recommended:  John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society, The New Industrial State, and/or The Great Crash, 1929.

 

 

 

The 2007-? Financial and Economic Crisis

 

 

Week 7:  Neoclassical perspectives

 

Feb. 15: Read: Robert Lucas, “In Defense of the Dismal Science,” The Economist, Aug. 6, 2009 (available at:  http://www.princeton.edu/~markus/misc/Economist_Lucas_roundtable/Lucas_article_The_Economist.pdf),

 

Read: Posner, “Economists on the Defensive – Robert Lucas,” The Atlantic, Aug. 8, 2009, (available at: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/08/economists-on-the-defensive-robert-lucas/22979/ ).

 

Watch: Frontline, “Inside the Meltdown,” Feb. 17, 2009, (60 min.)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meltdown/view/

 

 

Feb. 17:  Read:  John Cassidy, “Letter from Chicago: After the Blowup,” The New Yorker, January 11, 2010. (available at: http://www.viet-studies.info/kinhte/Cassidy_LetterFromChicago_NYer.htm)

 

Watch: PBS NOVA, “Mind over Money,” April 26, 2010, (50 min.) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/money/

 

 

 

Week 8:  Keynesian perspectives

 

Feb. 22: Read: Krugman, “How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?” New York Times, Sept. 2, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/magazine/06Economic-t.html

 

Read:  Joseph Stiglitz, “Reversal of Fortune: Politics & Power,” Vanity Fair, Nov. 2008, http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/11/stiglitz200811

 

Watch: Interview with Paul Krugman on Now on PBS, Oct. 10, 2008, (15 min.)

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/440/krugman.html

 

Watch: Interview with Joseph Stiglitz on Democracy Now, Feb. 18, 2010, (35 min.)

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/2/18/nobel_economist_joseph_stiglitz_on_obamas

 

Recommended:  Stiglitz, Ch. 1 and Ch. 9 from Freefall:  America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy, Norton 2010.

Krugman’s blog (in particular, see http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/how-the-other-half-thinks/ )

 

 

Feb. 24:  Global dimensions of the crisis and perspectives from the Global South.

 

Read: Smriti Rao, “Putting the ‘Global’ in the Global Economic Crisis,” Dollars and Sense, Nov/Dec. 2009, p. 26 – 29.

 

Read: Dariush Sokolov, “Beyond the World Creditors’ Cartel,” Dollars and Sense, Sept. 2009, available at: http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2009/0909sokolov.html

 

Recommended:  Johnson & Kwak, 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown, New York: Pantheon, 2010, ch. 2.

 

 

 

Week 9: Marxian perspectives

 

March 1: Read Magdoff & Yates, pp. 1 - 54

 

Watch: “Help for Homeowners?,” Feb. 6, 2009, (26 min.) http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/506/index.html

 

 

March 3: Read Magdoff & Yates, pp. 55 – 114.

 

Watch: “The Crisis of Credit” (11 minutes) http://vimeo.com/3261363  and “Credit and Credibility,” Nov. 21, 2008, (25 min.),  http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/446/index.html,

 

 

 

Week 10: Marxian perspectives continued

 

March 8: Read: Rick Wolff, “Capitalism Hits the Fan,” Dollars & Sense, Nov. 2008,

http://dollarsandsense.org/archives/2008/1108wolff.html

 

Watch: “Capitalism Hits the Fan,” with Rick Wolff, Dec. 2008, (60 min.)

www.capitalismhitsthefan.com

 

See additional articles, audio and video resources by Richard Wolff at http://www.rdwolff.com/

 

Watch: A David Harvey lecture with animation, at: http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/2010/06/28/rsa-animate-crisis-capitalism/

 

Recommended: Richard Wolff, “20 Years of Widening Inequality,” (pp. 40 43), “The Fallout from Falling Wages,” (pp. 125 – 128), “Consumerism,” (51 – 53), “Personal Debts and US Capitalism,” (pp. 138 – 140), “Capitalism’s Crisis through a Marxian Lens,” (pp. 83 – 86), “Socialism’s New American Opportunity,” (pp. 210 – 212), from Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It, Olive Branch Press, 2010.

 

 

March 10:  Wrap-up session.  Self-evaluations are due.

 

Class Schedule

 

Weekly reading assignments and topics covered

Mon

Tues

Wed

Thurs

Fri

Sat

Sun

Week 1

Introduction

 

Jan. 3

 

Jan. 4

Jan. 5

 

Jan. 6

 

Jan. 7

 

Jan. 8

Jan. 9

 

Week 2

Adam Smith

 

Jan. 10

 

Jan. 11

 

Jan. 12

Jan. 13 Homework #1 due

Jan. 14

 

Jan. 15

Jan. 16

Week 3

Karl Marx

Jan. 17

MLK Holiday

Jan. 18

 

Jan. 19

Jan. 20 Homework #2 due

Jan. 21

Jan. 22

Jan. 23

Week 4

Veblen

Jan. 24

Jan. 25

 

Jan. 26

Jan. 27

Homework #3 due

Jan. 28

 

Jan. 29

Jan. 30

Week 5

Keynes

Jan. 31

 

Feb. 1

 

Feb. 2

 

Feb. 3 Homework #4 due

Feb. 4

Feb. 5

Feb. 6

Week 6

Galbraith

Feb. 7

Feb. 8

 

Feb. 9

Feb. 10

Homework #5 due

***

Essay paper #1 is due

Feb. 11

Feb. 12

Feb. 13

Week 7

Neoclassical Perspectives on the Economic Crisis

Feb. 14

Feb. 15

 

Feb. 16

 

Feb. 17

Homework #6 due

Feb. 18

Feb. 19

Feb. 20

Week 8

Keynesian Perspectives

Feb. 21

Feb. 22

 

Feb. 23

Feb. 24

Homework #7 due

 

Feb. 25

Feb. 26

Feb. 27

Week 9

Marxian Perspectives

Feb. 28

Mar. 1

 

Mar. 2

Mar. 3

Homework #8 due

 

Mar. 4

 

Mar. 5

Mar. 6

Week 10

 

Mar. 7

Mar. 8

Essay paper #2 is due

 

Mar. 9

Mar. 10

Wrap Up Session; Self-evaluations due

Mar. 11

Mar. 12

Mar. 13