Introduction
Chapter 1 explains that this book examines two economic “principles,” or beliefs, that have shaped the perception of the economic system in the United States today: (1) the belief that the U.S. economy is competitive, making government market regulation unnecessary, and (2) the belief that corporations exist for the benefit of their shareholders, but not for other stakeholders. Contrary to what many economists and policymakers believe, the chapter shows that numerous markets in the United States are not competitive and that the belief in shareholder primacy is not an economic principle but a normative notion. In addition, the belief in the existence of competitive markets is used to argue that market regulation is unnecessary because competition provides all the needed constraints. If there are no constraints from competition and no regulation, serious harm can result, as shown by the Great Recession of 2008. The chapter also points out that there never was a purely laissez-faire market economy. The real question is how much market regulation is desirable. It is often difficult to debate this issue because many people label any expansion of government regulation as socialism. In addition, some people just do not like being told what to do by the government. That was a principle reason for the objection to the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act. The chapter then introduces the relationship between the two economic narratives and the millions of job losses this century, using lessons from the new institutional economics to analyze the issues.