Published Under the Garamond Imprint

Available in the US through Kumarian Press. 

The intelligent citizen's complete guide to the theory and practice of the global market.

Comments:

"A devastating critique or market doctrine." - Gordon Laxer, University of Alberta

"A brilliant, elegantly written expose." - Harry Glasbeek, Osgoode Hall Law School

"Some of the most exhilarating philosophy I have ever read." - G.A. Cohen, All Souls College, Oxford University

"Lays bare the foundations of a new economics... bids well to become a classic." - William Krehm, Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform

John McMurtry holds a doctorate from the University of London, and is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Guelph. His publications include The Dimensions of English, The Structure of Marx's World View and Understanding War.

Table of Contents: [Back to Top]

Foreword

Introduction: An Overview

Understanding How We Live: Recognizing Value Programs

Distinguishing between Representation and Reality

Part One: Behind the Invisible Hand

Chapter 1: The Problem: A Question of Freedom

The Pursuit of Freedom: An Irony of History

The Postmodern Response

The Freedom of No Alternative

The Pursuit of Freedom

The Founders of the Theory and Their Revisionists: From John Locke and Adam Smith to 'Value-Free Economics'

The Moral System of a Market Exchange

Individual Freedom and the Neutral Market State: Are These Coherent Forms?

The Case of Friedrich Hayek

Chapter 2: The Market as God

The Problem of Evil

The Regulating Principles of True Belief

The Confusion of Moral Commandments and Physical Laws since Ricardo

From the Market System to the Cosmic Order

Punishments for Disobedience to Market Laws

The Underlying Principles of the Market Theology

The Place of Free Will in the Market Theodicy

Robert Reich's Conversion

The Doctrine of Infallibility

The Invisible Hand Revisited

Part Two: Market Theory and Practice: Arguments Pro and Con

Chapter 3: Freedom, Private Property, and Money: From John Locke to the New World Order

John Locke on the Right to Private Property

The Problem of Private Property in Slaves

How Do We Distinguish Buying Slaves from Buying Labour?

The Free Contract Solution

The Problem of Propertyless Unemployed

Justifications for Private Property in Money without Limit

The Trickle-Down Theory

Where the Rich Refuse Contract

Private Property for and against Life-Interests

Abstraction as Disguise for Special Interest

Do Property Rights Have Property Obligations?

The New Crusade for Freedom

Chapter 4: Private Profit, Competition, and the Social Good

Adam Smith's Moral Revolution

I Am Rational, Therefore I Self-maximize

Dehumanizing Adam Smith

The Corporate Person

The New Global Market Sovereign

The Money Ground of Value

The Logic of Competitive Advantage

The Homogenization of Nations in the World Market

Chapter 5: The Free Market and Democracy

Freedom of the Consumer—If You Can Pay

The Question of Need

Consumer Sovereignty or Infantile Demand?

The Truth of Consumer Choice

Freedom of the Producer or the Non-Producer?

The Knowledge-Based Economy

Six Ways in which the Knowledge-Based Economy is Structured against Knowing the Truth

Education and the Market Model

Freedom of the Press—For Those Who Own One

The Invisible Curtain of the Media

The Grammar of Censorship

Chapter 6: The Market Metaphysic: Rallying Cries and True Meanings

Getting the State Off Our Backs

Removing Barriers to Trade

No Free Lunches

Part Three: Planetary Health, the Global Market, and the Civil Commons

Chapter 7: The Decoupling of Capital from Civil and Environmental Life

Freeing Capital from Society: The Function of Free Trade

Freeing Corporations from Workers' Demands

Freeing Corporations from Governments

Rootless Investors and the Age of Disposable Life

Seeing Through the Rich to the Value Program

Chapter 8: The Mutations of the Profit System and Their Cure

From the Life-Code of Value to the Logic of the World-System Crisis

Sacrificing Life to the Money-Sequence

Towards a Cure: Relinking Banks to the Public that Charters and Funds Them

Money Creation and Public Accountability

Chapter 9: The Economics of Life and Death

Growth, Development, and the Mutations of the Money-Sequence

The Pathologization of the Money-Sequence: From Means of Life to Means of Life Destruction

Banks for and against the Public Interest: The Market Lessons of the Asian Tigers

Pension and Mutual Funds: A Hidden Market Keel

Taxing Money-Demand: The Unseen Principle of Justice

Beyond the Mega-Machine to the Civil Commons

Confronting the Death Spiral of the System

The Life-Ground of the Civil Commons

The Civil Commons and the State

The Civil Commons and Real Capital

Conclusion: The Way Ahead

Index

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