 “it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong” ◦ monetary expansion as a means of helping to create full employment ◦ Proposed forced saving ◦ Believed in government intervention or non- intervention as necessary for public good. ◦ Bedrock of liberal economic thought and debate

 A system of economic regulations aimed at increasing the power of the state. ◦ The State tried to regulate and strengthen the national economy:  Favorable Balance of Trade (export more than import)  Encourage Agriculture  Build up a sea presence  Colonize! ◦ Led to many international conflicts:  War of the Spanish Succession  War of Austrian Succesion  Seven Years War ( )

 Strongly opposed to Mercantilism  Believed in ‘Liberal’ Economic theory ◦ Individual freedom ◦ Economic Individualism ◦ Laissez-faire: opposed gov’t intervention in social and economic affairs, even if the need for action seemed great to reformers

1. Goods and services are produced for profitable exchange. This is good! 2. Anything that sells (including labor) is a commodity. 3. “Invisible Hand” (competition) regulates the economy – both commodities AND incomes BusinessesHouseholds Goods & Service Labor & Investments Consumer Spending Wages

 Thomas Malthus - “HOW MUCH IS THERE?” ◦ believed human population would outstrip the food supply resulting in massive famines.  Population grow geometrically; land usage arithmetically  Underestimated the explosion in agricultural tech.  Advocated end of welfare and industry regulation  David Ricardo- “WHO GETS WHAT?” ◦ “Iron Law of Wages” – wages always remained at subsistence levels b/c of surplus of labor ◦ Predicted the squeezing of capitalist profits by rising food and rent costs. ◦ Advocated the end of tariffs on foreign grain (Corn Laws)

 Built upon ‘Socialist’ views that called for a fairer distribution of resources (‘Utopian’)  Historical Materialism – Reliant on sociological study of historical societies and economic data.  Theory of Surplus Value: true value of a product is labor and, since the worker receives a small portion of his just labor price, the difference is surplus value, “stolen” from him by the capitalist.

 From Smith: Gains from trade were GREAT – but only for the Capitalist, and only because he exploited the laborer.  From Malthus: the unplanned nature of the economy can be disastrous – social planning is necessary for survival  From Ricardo: Squeezing of capitalists’ profits will lead to crises:  Overproduction  Boom and Bubble cycles (recessions and depressions)  Growth of gap between ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’  Capital ‘flight’ and ‘exportation’ (globalization)

 Freedom as core belief: individuals must be free to pursue their interests and choices.  Book: Principles of Political Economy ◦ Standard economics textbook until ◦ Political economy could distinguish the laws governing economic behavior, enabling governments to create appropriate institutions.  Incentives were key: if people felt they had something to gain, the system would work.

 The Great Depression of the 1930s led to a rethinking of the relationship between supply and demand.  Business cycles are a regular part of unregulated markets, but this was different.  Classical economists held that supply was the most important. ◦ Say’s Law: in a free market workers would always be willing to lower their wages to a level where employers could profitably offer them jobs ◦ Keynes was the first to recognize that was not often the case: workers retain wage expectations.  Consumption will drop, savings will become paramount.

 Classical economics said that as consumption dropped, so would interest rates for borrowing, which would spur investors to take this ‘cheap’ money and help balance the economy.  Keynes pointed out that this was not how investment worked: businessmen would not invest if they predicted lowered long-term profits.  The Answer: the govt’ spends, which lowers unemployment, and this creates demand again.

 First and most important of early challenges to Keynesianism. ◦ Milton Friedman was a student.  Government planning (any form of socialism) was doomed to fail ◦ The Economic Calculation Problem  Friedman would develop his ideas into a counter-narrative regarding the Depression. ◦ Federal Reserve had contracted the money supply which resulted in hoarding of cash (saving), that had caused the recession to turn into a depression.