American economic system

The primary purpose of this book is to provide material in convenient form for a comprehensive course covering the principles, institutions, struc ture, and operation of the American economic system-what it is and how it works, and why sometimes it does not work as well as it should. The material, is hoped, will appeal to three groups of students: (1) third-or fourth-year students in professional schools and colleges; (2) students in more general college courses who are interested in an applied economics course; and (3) businessmen, college graduates in training with industry. and other students outside the colleges who are seriously interested in ing a working knowledge of the operations of our American economic system. more ambitious objective is to give the serious student in college or in industry the ability to apply this understanding and the ability to justify his opinions and conclusions by sound reasoning. practical

It may be impossible to attain this complete objective within the time limits of a single college semester and under the compulsions of a crowded curriculum. Notwithstanding these handicaps, it is hoped that most students can obtain a useful degree of understanding of the economic fundamentals underlying current problems. It is hoped that the close connection of eco nomic principles with practical situations, that is stressed throughout the text, will make the study of economics interesting and possibly exciting something that the study of orthodox principles alone has seldom succeeded in doing.