ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book begins with dynamic instability, showing that this condition need not lead to ridiculous conclusions about the global behavior of the system. It explains what is meant by “Leontief technology” and studies balanced growth in an economy with this technology, one which practices “perfect thrift”. The book returns to balanced growth, but this time with consumption permitted. It contains the proof of the basic dynamic instability theorem for a perfect thrift Leontief system, and it shows that input substitution possibilities do not destroy, or even seriously alter. The book is devotes to the most important “schematic,” as opposed to detailed econometric, models of the trade cycle. It traces on the nineteenth-century trade cycle, in particular relation to Ricardo’s predictions regarding landlords and industrialists.
