We are surrounded by a sea of economic issues. Your senator is in favor of expanding the North American Free Trade Agreement to include other Latin American countries. A presidential candidate says we shouldn't try to reduce the budget deficit until the unemployment rate comes down. The auto parts company with a factory in the next town cut its local work force in half after opening a new plant in Thailand. It is precisely this interplay of markets, institutions and technology that economics is concerned with.
Economic issues are always complex.
But we are currently living through a period of remarkable transition. From the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to the present, capitalism has gone through extended periods in which our institutions have not been adequate for our technology. One of these periods was from the 1870s to the 1890s when both firms and society had to adapt to new production technologies that drastically increased the size and economic power of corporations. Another of these periods was the 1930s, a decade of severe depression in the industrialized world which led to a major government role in the steering of the economy and in the distribution of income. Not only were our economic institutions inadequate during these transition periods, but our economic theories were found wanting as well.