Economics: Multimedia Resouces

This series presents an introduction to economics and business.

In this 2011 Falling Walls video lecture, Stewart Wallis explores the most fundamental obstacles to our survival: the systemic problem of economies faced with growing inequality and instability, and a failure to live within ecological limits.

This four-part series provides a foundation for studying the political economy of international trade, finance, development, and natural resource competition.

Most economists use Gross Domestic Product to measure a country’s economic health. But some experts in the field of economic development consider GDP calculations to be painfully inadequate. This program explores alternative ways to define national success and productivity using not only monetary parameters but also the safety, happiness, and potential of a country’s citizens and the health of its natural environment. (28 minutes)

Marilyn Waring demystifies the language of economics by defining it as a value system in which all goods and activities are related only by their monetary value. She claims that monetary exchange with results in unpaid work—usually done by women—is unrecognized, and activities that may be environmentally and socially hazardous are regarded as productive. (94 minutes)