I really want to understand Capitalism, from all angles possible.
I want to understand the economics, the market, the organizational structures, the exploitation, the history, the social impact, the corruption, the ties between industries and government, I want to understand the techniques and psychology of marketing and publicity, I want to understand unions and labor struggles, the tax havens, the shady practices of large corporations, how multinationals behave in poorer countries, banking, how companies and governments pressure nations into following certain financial and economic policies, logistics, management, technological innovation, I want to understand why they organize the office space in a specific way, etc.
Give me anything along those lines to read. Anything. Economic textbooks, history books, biographies, memoirs, journalists, studies, whatever.
an econ textbook a finance textbook Smith Ricardo Marx
that's all you need
Robert White
Nice collection femanon thanks. Also, will you kiss me?
Jose Collins
>a finance textbook any good recs?
Isaiah Rogers
Dilate
Gavin Carter
An ambitious goal. Too ambitious perhaps. I'll try to help you
Start with economic history. You need to know the facts before introducing yourself into theories. Read Hobsbawm trilogy on the XIX century and Weber's General economic history. Read Polanyi's book "The great transformation". That should be enough history. Also more recommended autors are Kindleberger or Ha Joon Chang for history of development.
Now go to the theory. Different approaches to understanding capitalism. And each of them is a fucking universe. With regards to marxism (the field that I know the most) you can start with Marx in this order: 1) the communist manifesto; 2) wage labor and capital; 3) Capital (read auxiliary bibliography like Harvey's book and Rosdolsky's one). After Marx, the marxist tradition goes on. Read Lenin "Imperialism as a higher stage of capitalism". Read Mandel's "Late capitalism".
As for mainstream econ., you can just read the textbooks: Macroeconomics by Mankiw, Microeconomics by Varian, those are the chore.
Schumpeter's book "Capitalism, socialism and democracy" is also recommended. And there is far more, bust since you've asked a very general question, a very general answer is also given. Feel free to ask for more specific topics.
Eli Morgan
>As for mainstream econ., you can just read the textbooks: Macroeconomics by Mankiw, Microeconomics by Varian, those are the chore.
OP, skip everything else and just stick to the Mankiw textbook. Everything else is pseud stuff that user thinks is right but is laughed at by the economics community
Alexander Evans
Your request seems very specific about American capitalism and how they operate to implement their ideas. I’d say you need some Economics university textbooks
Hudson Martin
>Your request seems very specific about American capitalism and how they operate to implement their ideas. >so in instead of reading a book about that read all these economic textbooks lit everyone
the difference between marxism and economic textbooks is that you can use them to make money.
Luis Ramirez
Elaborate
Liam James
Well if you know about countries economic policies you can make better investment decisions. Also if you know about micro economics you can understand how businesses run better. I don't know economics thought desu
Kevin Cruz
If you want an actual empirical understanding of how finance works in the real world today the typical econ textbook stories will give you a total misunderstanding, this is the best you're going to get: scribd.com/document/385745247/Textbook-v-2-1
Also all check out all these works: Gus Russo, Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America’s Hidden Power Brokers R.T. Naylor, Hot Money and the Politics of Debt Connie Bruck, The Predators’ Ball: The Inside Story of Drexel Burnham and the Rise of the Junk Bond Raiders Robert I. Friedman, Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America Alain Deneault, Offshore: Tax Havens and the Rule of Global Crime
Grayson Evans
I had a hunch that the financiers wouldn't give away their secrets in textbooks.
James Morales
Devious trips
-- Anthony Sutton, The Wallstreet Trilogy (& Bolsheviks, & Nazis, and Domestic)
James Green
I don't really have a background in economics, but I can give you some from a History, IR and Philosophy perspective.
I'd recommend "Understanding International Relations" by Chris Brown so you can get a general understanding of the field. It will be relevant in understanding Globalization, international organisations such as the IMF and WTO.
I'm currently reading "A Brief History of Neoliberalism" by David Harvey and its good so far. He is a Marxist, so he does attribute the aggressive deregulation, destruction of union organisation, and seizure of public assets to acquire absurd amounts of capital to a ruling class, so that might rub you the wrong way depending on who you are.
"Capitalist Realism" by Mark Fisher is a more philosophical book. Its a good distillation on the effects of capitalism on culture and people. Good books to accompany it if you're in this sort of mood are "First as Tragedy, Then as Farce" by Slovoj Zizek for a bit of a more psychoanalytic take on it. The book is a good intro to Zizek in general. The other book is "Manufacturing Consent" by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman for some analysis on how media is a more effective tool for propaganda than state propaganda, as well as the sorts of narratives it sells us.
Lastly "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein is a more journalistic take, but it goes over a type of "shock therapy" employed by capitalists which involves large amounts of privatization and deregulation following wars and natural and economic disaster.
You can also read up on some civil rights stuff to see how the CIA and FBI sought to disrupt the organisation of black people and other marginalized people because of their left leaning politics and their subsequent threat to the white capitalist hegemony.
Jacob Price
Sutton's work should be taken with a big fucking grain of salt
