'Economics pre-empts the
headlines. It bears on everyone's life, anxieties and, if more rarely, satisfactions.'
Believing that 'the state of
economics in general, and the reasons for its present failure in particular, might be put
in simple, accurate language that almost everyone could understand and that a perverse few
might conceivably enjoy', Professor Galbraith has collaborated with Nicole Salinger in an
entertaining dialogue.
She leads him through a
step-by-step explanation of economic ideas with such clarity that all can understand the
basic nature of classical, neo-classical and Marxian economics, the role of money and
banking, the modus operand! of fiscal monetary policy, the part played by multinationals,
the reasons for simultaneous inflation and unemployment and the causes of the present
crisis in international economic and monetary affairs.