ABSTRACT
This feature of the economy is inconsistent with the analytical apparatus of mainstream economics that, as a consequence, has yielded completely delusive results despite the use of sophisticated techniques and procedures. The situation is made worse by the fact that the various branches of heterodox economics, even if animated by an acute and growing dissatisfaction toward mainstream economics, have not offered a satisfactory treatment of the three aspects but only a fragmented analytical panorama. A study of the matter must meet a complex and encroaching intellectual apparatus that has been built over time on methodological bases that, although fashionable, are substantially misleading. This will oblige us to start from some consideration on method but is limited here to what is absolutely indispensable. The chapter is articulated as follows.
