The American Economy [antikvár]

PREFACE Still more years of experience have prompted, and guided, this revision. iMy own continued teaching of the basic course in economics has been supplemented by suggestions from other teachers, and from no small number of students. Consequently, an accumulating experience has gone into this reworking of prior revisions, each of which drew heavily upon advice from teachers and students. The outcome, I believe, is an up-to-date volume carefully designed and balanced to meet the essential needs of the overwhelming majority of college courses in the principles and problems of economics. Organization of topics has been modified somewhat. The Part dealing with government finance now follows price and distribution. The material on big business and concentration has been integrated with that on monopolistic pricing and antitrust policy. The discussion of problems of poverty appears, in much expanded form, after the treatment of the various types of income shares. Three added chapters deal, in addition to the analysis of poverty, with goals of national income policy and the relations of government to business. Much that is new has been blended with material brought from various places in the earlier edition. Fortunately, I have been able to draw upon personal experiences and research, involving both business and governmental problems, in this country and several called "underdeveloped." Yet the basis for judging relevance, realism, and relative importance must rest heavily upon the help of other teachers of economics —and in selecting things to include and exclude I have tried to make constructive use of such help. The present arrangement continues what seems to me a most attractive feature—a natural break at mid-point. The analysis of policies and problems for full employment and stability of the national economy is completed, and price theory begins, halfway through. Many teachers, I believe, will find this spacing ideal. One semester will end with the study of a topic of high interest toward which the early material has built, bit by bit. The next will start building again, this time microeconomics. Yet a characteristic of earlier editions remains—a high degree of flexibility. The instructor has wide freedom to take up topics in the sequence which will best suit his own preferences. The Teacher's Manual suggests various possibilities for organizing the material for two-semester, ix