“Economics—California Edition” 2008

 by Prentice Hall

1.  The front cover has a commercial business announcement for “The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition.”  This commercial mention is repeated throughout the book, including p. ii, iv, v, vi, vii, ix, 16 and so on.  There is no way a reviewer of this textbook can vouch for the content of The Wall Street Journal Classroom.  Much of the content of The Wall Street Journal does not involve economics.

2.  The back cover has commercial business announcements for PHSchooo.com, StudentAid.ed.gov, and StudentEXPRESS.  A reviewer cannot vouch for the content of these ventures or programs, which are constantly being changed.  Much may have nothing to do with economics.

3.  P. 3 states in the first column, “Economists look at the decisions made in each of these scenes and study those decisions in greater detail.”  The authors don’t know what any or all “economists” do.  This is a highly presumptive and misleading presentation.

4.  The book has no good definition of its subject “economics”.  The glossary on p. 550 says, “the study of how people seek to satisfy their needs and wants by making choices.”  Hm.  Nothing else.

5.  P. 39 says in a picture caption, “Many Western businesses saw the collapse of Communism as a business opportunity.”  Almost no Western businesses serious saw or now see Russia as a profitable business opportunity.  There is virtually no Western investments in Russia.  The Ruble is not accepted in almost all countries.  The Russian government discourages almost all foreign business operations.

6.  P. 39 says, “It is now obvious that Russia’s problems in making the transition were seriously undermined.  As this painful process continues, Russians look forward to the day when a prosperous free market economy becomes a reality.”  This is totally unbelievable.  There is no chance of a “transition” to a free market economy.  Nobody in the ruling class is interested, and the Russian public has no power.

7.  P. 44 says, “The United States has a free enterprise economy.”  This cannot be true with governments spending about 40% of the gross national product, inasmuch as government action runs on political decisions, not true economic ones.  It would be more accurate to say that the United States has a partially free economy.

8.  P. 44 says, “So, too is free trade, although the United States does protect some domestic industries and does retaliate against restrictions imposed by other nations.”  This is vastly untrue.  There is currently no free two-way reciprocal trade between the United States and other nations.  The trade deficit against Americans is over $800 billion per year, whereby $800 billion in cash leaves this country every year and does not come back to buy anything.  This arrangement is the result of numerous trade agreements that the U.S. government has created with other nations.  Other nations prevent their citizens and companies from buying many goods and services from American companies.  An annual report of the U. S. Trade Representative lists out these numerous “unfree trade” policies under the title of “Foreign Trade Barriers”.  The 2008 edition has nearly 600 pages.  China alone has 68 pages of ways it prevents its people from buying anything American.