Taught by Peter Rodriguez
Darden School of Business, University of Virginia
Ph.D., Princeton University

How can a nation create the conditions for economic growth and prosperity, improving people's lives
on both the individual and national levels? And what, once these conditions are achieved, can it do
to sustain this progress? Do any of the many "isms" under which we organize our economic philosophies
hold the answer?

While an insightful understanding of different economic approaches has always been essential for
policymakers, it is equally important for those of us who might not steer the economy but must still
live and function within it.

Such an understanding is the key to making sense of not only economic events but of "noneconomic"
news as well, allowing us to anticipate the economic consequences that can impact both the nation's
economy and one's personal economy. And, of course, it sharpens the judgment you already bring to
your own discussions of the issues.

In the 24 lectures of Why Economies Rise or Fall, Professor Peter Rodriguez of the University of
Virginia guides you through a stimulating and, above all, accessible examination of what economists
know and don't know about this elusive search for economic prosperity.

Discover the Truths of Economic Success and Failure

The last 200 years of economic history have offered us a wealth of information useful in probing
the question of why economies rise or fall. Much of this information is rooted in several influential
theories, developed by such famous thinkers as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes.

Yet while economic theories are useful, in order to truly understand how economies grow, thrive,
and potentially fall, you must also look at how individual countries use and apply these theories.
Sometimes they strictly adhere to these theories; sometimes they adapt these theories to their own
cultural history; and sometimes they take these theories and branch off into new economic territory.

In Why Economies Rise or Fall, you'll learn

* how countries as widely different as the United States and Vietnam have grown their economies;
* how countries like China and India were able to recover from economic reverses; and, most important,
* why the critical test of any economic policy is its ability to productively alter human behavior for
everyone's ultimate benefit.

By looking at economic growth as the result of incentivizing such productive behavior."making
productivity more profitable than all the alternatives".Professor Rodriguez clears up an often-shrouded
economic landscape. The result is a course that brings the economic strategies chosen by nations down
to street level by adding a newfound clarity to key issues:

* Why economies succeed or fail, what secrets lie beneath the generalized "banner" of a particular
ideology, and what might happen when you mix them together
* How economic bubbles are created, why they burst, and how nations recover from them
* The challenges posed by the hyperconnected world economy created by globalization
* The damage that factors like corruption and even the "informal" economy represented by colorful vendors
and street bazaars can do to a nation's prospects for growth
* How everything we know about economic and financial hegemony may change with the rise of China and the
deep structural issues facing mature Western economies

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