Intro Political Economy

How was the economic pain of Covid-19 distributed across our society and whose needs and interests will be met by the post-Covid (or late Covid) economy? How and why are the burdens and benefits of taxation unequally distributed across US society? Why has American labor lost economic power in recent decades and how could labor regain political strength? If inequality hurts society socially and economically, which political and economic forces reinforce economic inequality? These questions and others are central to political economy, the interdisciplinary study of politics and economics. This course will be a non-traditional problem centered introduction to the study of the economy. We are using a new open-source online textbook from critical economists that uses real world policy problems to learn the concepts and methods of economics. The course offers a deeper focus on real world problems and on social power relations in the determination of economic outcomes than a conventional introduction to economics.* It is designed to help Fairhaven students explore the very real connections between economics, politics, history and public policy. In addition to Economy, Society, and Public Policy, each student will choose one book on the political economy of: 1) Covid 19; 2) unequal taxation; 3) labor; or 4) inequality to co-teach class and write a review essay. Requirements for Credit: Faithful attendance and participation; completion of homework assignments on ESPP; student taught class and final paper. * If you need a thorough grounding in microeconomics for further classes, I recommend ECON 206 Introduction to Microeconomics.

Course Texts The CORE Team, ECONOMY, SOCIETY, AND PUBLIC POLICY available as a free open access Ebook at: https://www.core-econ.org/espp/book/text/0-3-contents.html And one of: Heather Boushey, Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do about It (Cambridge: Harvard, 2019) Gerald Friedman et al, The Coronavirus Crisis Reader 2nd editon (NH: Dollars and Sense, 2021) Steven Greenhouse, Beaten down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor (NY: Anchor, 2020) Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman, The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay (NY: Norton, 2020)