Introduction

Thing 1

There is no such thing as a free market

Thing 2

Companies should not be run in the interest of their owners

Thing 3

Most people in rich countries are paid more than they should be

Thing 4

The washing machine has changed the world more than the internet has

Thing 5

Assume the worst about people and you get the worst

Thing 6

Greater macroeconomic stability has not made the world economy more stable.

Thing 7

Free-market policies rarely make poor countries rich

Thing 8

Capital has a nationality

Thing 9

We do not live in a post-industrial age

Thing 10

The US does not have the highest living standard in the world

Thing 11

Africa is not destined for underdevelopment

Thing 12

Governments can pick winners

Thing 13

Making rich people richer doesn't make the rest of us richer

it only works under certain conditions: if they're forced to actually invest in productive things (through policy measures) and then share the fruits of such growth through a strong welfare state (or other such mechanism)

Thing 14

US managers are over-priced

part of the reason behind high executive paychecks is the power this class commands--often, they sit on other companies' boards and thus have no reason to question rising paychecks as a whole (p155). plus, as a class, they have enormous political power, even for supposedly leftist parties like the Democratic Party

Thing 15

People in poor countries are more entrepreneurial than people in rich countries

Thing 16

We are not smart enough to leave things to the market

Thing 17

More education in itself is not going to make a country richer

Thing 18

What is good for General Motors is not necessarily good for the United States

Thing 19

Despite the fall of communism, we are still living in planned economies

obviously economies are still planned--the difficulty is planning the right things, at the right levels (p.200)

Thing 20

Equality of opportunity may not be fair

Thing 21

Big government makes people more open to change

Thing 22

Financial markets need to become less, not more, efficient

Thing 23

Good economic policy does not require good economists

Conclusion: How to rebuild the world economy

there is nothing "natural" about the situation we are in now (post-2008 financial crisis)--we need to understand how we got here and stop voting for neoliberal policies that will only hurt us in the end (in a nutshell)

Postscript