Part 1
Prologue, introduction, & their Market Model   Running time 23:44

This is THE model: supply EQUALS demand, when the price is right…Okay, except for the assumptions about the world that the model leaves out, in the order the film presents them: 1. You need money to participate, 2. It’s a model of individuals making choices—but many things we want can’t be chosen individually (like clean air), 3. The model’s assumptions about people don’t describe human nature, 4. Labor, people, aren’t commodities, 5. Trade & exchange models ignore power relations, 6. And, markets need scarcity (think water!) to function—how is this good thing?

 

 

Part 2
The Orthodox Model of the Firm   Running time 15:59

The foundational model of business firms you’d encounter in the textbooks: “The Profit Maximizing Firm in a Competitive Market Model,” presents firms competing with each other until…there are no profits!  HOW? it includes the CEOs salary and bonus as a cost, it includes the cost of capital—how much money you could’ve made elsewhere as a cost…while it excludes costs borne by nature and others. It ignores how winning competitive firms become market dominating ones….and more!

 

 

Part 3
MACROECONOMICS, Conclusion, Epilogue   Running time 18:40

Keynes the founder of macroeconomics is co-opted—employment is found in the market; its price is set just like the price of tomatoes…we’re back to: supply = demand—if the price is right, i.e. low enough—there will be full employment! The reinforcing downward spiral of less income meaning less demand meaning more unemployment is ignored. Money, which is debt, is treated as both scarce and growing in value, while nature and our ability to do work is ignored or devalued….