Commercial Society: A Primer on Ethics and Economics

Description

One of the greatest and most joyful challenges of adult life is to develop skills that make the people around us better off with us than without us. Integrity is a key part of that challenge. We are social animals, aiming not simply to trade but to make a place for ourselves in a community. You don't want to have to pretend that you feel proud of fooling your customers into believing you could be trusted. The ethical question is: how do people have to live in order to make the world a better place with them than without them? The economic question is: what kind of society makes people willing and able to use their talents in a way that is good for them and for the people around them? The entrepreneurial question is: what does it take to show up in the marketplace with something that can take your community to a different level? In this book, the authors discuss the connections between the ethical, economic, and entrepreneurial dimensions of a life well-lived. Contents Acknowledgments 1 Ethics, Economy, and Entrepreneurship 2 Why Ethics? 3 Why Economy? 4 Why Entrepreneurship? PART I: KEY CONCEPTS 5 Trade 6 Resources 7 Cost 8 Institutions 9 Value PART II: PROGRESS 10 Adam Smith on Progress 11 Transaction Cost and Progress 12 Commerce and Progress 13 Production Possibilities Frontier 14 What Seems Like Progress PART III: UNDERSTANDING TRADE 15 Conditions for Trade 16 Comparative Advantage 17 Division of Labor 18 Buyers 19 Sellers 20 A Market: Supply and Demand 21 A Market Responds: Price and Quantity 22 Economic Surplus 23 Price Signals and Spontaneous Order 24 Price Controls 25 Economic Science: Putting Theory to the Test 26 Progress and Wealth Creation PART IV: TRUST, AGENCY, AND BYSTANDERS 27 Principal-Agent Framework 28 Cost to Bystanders 29 Competitors Are Not Bystanders 30 The Logic of the Commons 31 Environmental Tragedies 32 Property 33 Parcels 34 Communal Property 35 Trust 36 Benefits for Bystanders 37 Market Power 38 Monopoly Power 39 Monopsony Power 40 International Trade and Trade Protection 41 What Should Not Be for Sale PART V: MANAGEMENT OF A COMMERCIAL SOCIETY 42 Financial Institutions 43 Fractional Reserve Banking 44 Measuring Economies 45 Gross Domestic Product 46 Unemployment Rate 47 Measuring the Price Level 48 Fiscal Policy 49 Monetary Policy 50 Public Choice 51 Corruption PART VI: PERSONAL AND BUSINESS FINANCE 52 Accounting Basics 53 Compound Growth 54 Saving, Borrowing, and Investing 55 Marketing Fundamentals 56 Insurance 57 Break-Even Analysis 58 Budgeting 59 Financial Management PART VII: INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP 60 Knowledge Discovery 61 It Takes More Than Ideas 62 What Innovation Looks Like 63 Entry, Exit, and the Role of Profit 64 Creative Destruction 65 Entrepreneurs as Resource Integrators 66 Entrepreneurship as a Process 67 Creating Markets 68 Competitive Advantage: The Dynamics of Remaining Viable 69 The Big Errors 70 The Entrepreneur and Self-Assessment Index About the Authors