PLSC 270: Capitalism: Success, Crisis and Reform

Class Sessions

Click session titles below to access audio, video, and course materials.

1. Exploding Worlds and Course Introduction
2. Thomas Malthus and Inevitable Poverty
3. Counting the Fingers of Adam Smith's Invisible Hand
4. Karl Marx, Joseph Schumpeter, and an Economic System Incapable of Coming to Rest
5. Property, Freedom, and the Essential Job of Government
6. Rise of the Joint Stock Corporation
7. Can You Sell a Scheme for Operating on Beating Hearts and Make a Business of It?
8. Mortal Life Cycle of a Great Technology
9. Guest Lecture by Jim Alexander: Managing the Crooked E
10. Guest Lecture by Richard Medley: Entrepreneurship in Business Information
11. Guest Lecture by Will Goetzmann: Institutions and Incentives in Mortgages and Mortgage-Backed Securities
12. Accountability and Greed in Investment Banking
13. The Mortgage Meltdown in Cleveland
14. The Political and Judicial Elements of American Capitalism
15. Mass Affluence Comes to the Western World
16. Braudel's Bell Jar
17. The Case of Mister Balram Halwai
18. Microfinance in South India
19. Plight of the Bottom Billion
20. Policy Targets for Capitalist Development
21. Guest Lecture by Paolo Zanonni, Part I
22. Guest Lecture by Paolo Zanonni, Part II
23. Marrying the Devil in Texas
24. Capitalist Enterprise and Clean Water for a Bolivian City