The promises men live by : a new approach to economics / by Harry Scherman.

Introductory: In which some peculiarities of economics as a science are considered and the intention of this inquiry is set forth, ix -- I. We take hold of a loose end of truth in the tangle of human affairs, 3 -- II. Some basic psychological aspects of labor to which long habit has blinded men, 12 -- III. The role of promises in production-revealing how almost all modern wealth is given away as soon as possible after it is produced, 24 -- IV. To market! to market! the only economic area where swaps now take place as they did at the dawn of human society, 37 -- V. Are the promises of consumers dangerous or beneficial?-a common fallacy about instalment contracts, 55 -- VI. A brief analysis of the compulsions behind economic promises, and why the promises that center around rent are unique, 69 -- VII. The vital differences between short and long promises-and why the long promises that center around land have produced the same type of events as far back as there are records, 85 -- VIII. How banks constitute the focal points of the interdependent promises of men, 115 -- IX. How bank promises are used as money far more than money itself, and how the creation of bank money ls controlled, 138 -- X. The center of the vast spider web of promises in each nation-its central bank; and how it ties up the promises of individuals with those of governments, 159 -- XI . How the promises made to and made by insurance companies differ from those of banks, 182 -- XII. How our loose end of truth explains the rise of corporations and one of the most deep-going changes in the long career of human beings on the planet, 195 -- XIII. Government promises and how they compare in reliability with those of individuals, 225 -- XIV. A simple explanation of money, with a little history, revealing how its modern mysteries principally arise from failure to distinguish between a promise and a thing, 254 -- XV. Why is gold the world's money?, 287 -- XVI. The true relation of governments to money and what the record shows about three thousand years of fraud, 302 -- XVII. How paper money originated from the fraud of rulers, 318 -- XVIII. How all the considerations which affect other economic promises govern modern money as well, 347 -- XIX. Who owns what today? how modern ownership of wealth differs from that of all our ancestors, 363 -- XX. How the volume of promises made by men both measure and determine the well-being of society: the heart of the mystery of business cycles, 390 -- XXI. The processes by which the completion and incompletion of economic promises bring about the rhythmic phases of the business cycle, 416 -- XXII. In which we visualize an ideal society, and consider what can be done by any ordinary citizen to help bring it about, 457 -- Index, 483.