The ultimate doom and gloom scenario.

ray123

Read Lord of the Flies. That will help to answer your questions...

ray123

Even better, watch a documentary called zeitgeist (it is available on google).
It discusses v interesting issues, such as how this world is controlled by a false economy!

tomstickland

Any recommendations for an initial economic text book? I'd want one that looks at the fundamentals, possibly undergraduate level, or maybe general pop science type thing.

What about this?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Economics-Basics-Routledge-Paperback/dp/0415314127/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220830184&sr=1-2

globalds

The book I offered Would be of interest to you ,especially since you mentioned the role of games theory in the understanding of economic activity .
The author takes it slightly further than the model you proposed by permitting wealth to be transferred across generations .
We seem to be in interesting days as far as economics is concerned something akin to quantum and physics .

tomstickland

Yes, it sounds good. However, I don't want to be reading a book challenging conventional thinking before I know what conventional thinking is. Unless I can do both at the same time.

mizzbiz

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith is a MUST read for anyone wanting to understand the development of the current economy from the Industrial Revolution and the forces of the free market. It covers what would happen in the events you describe, namely, that the economy itself adjusts naturally and better without government intervention.
The suggestion of Globalds is spot on too.

neverdespairgirl

tomstickland wrote: »

I don't, other than pondering how an economic system works and what the limits of it are before it goes unstable, or has any other mathematical states.

I think that, to some extent, the modern economy is so very complicated that no-one really knows how it does work.

globalds

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I think that, to some extent, the modern economy is so very complicated that no-one really knows how it does work.

It is the ability to jump up to the next level that allows a system to be understood .
So that trying to analyse every molecule moving around in a hurricane would be an impossible task ..to be able to create a rule at another level may allow these individual actions to be calculated using a common equation thus enabling an understanding of the process of a Hurricane rather than all those individual actions .

turbobob

I suppose if you really wanted to look at a doom and gloom scenario watch the film "Threads". Particularly the aftermath of the attacks. I guess this shows what could happen if the economy completely collapsed (in the film it was due to nuclear attacks destroying all infrastructure and wiping out the cities). You're looking at a breakdown of all modern notions of an economy and basically returning to the dark ages. In this scenario there would be no "government" to help you. It would be a return to a primitive way of life.

Pobby

My choice is "Empire of Debt" by Bill Bonner. It compares modern America to the rise and fall of Rome.