WATCH: Everyone Has Their Price — An Introduction to Economics

Money doesn’t make the world go round. Paper currency and coins are just a stand-in for value, and an arbitrary one at that. Cattle, salt, and seashells all once flourished as the standard-bearer of value before Roman emperors began issuing coins. What has always motivated human behavior in an economy, explains University of Chicago professor of law and economics Saul Levmore, is price.

In this incredible discussion, Levmore brings the future of economics into sharp focus by contrasting the approaches of the emerging global economic powers of India and China.

This is our fifth under-an-hour video feature. Check out all 12 segments of this amazing series on our Floating University Playlist.

From the basics of pricing, demand, and competition, to global politics and the future of government, Dr. Levmore makes it easy to see economics at work all around us. This may well be the only field in which thinking about the cost of a chocolate chip cookie or how airline ticket pricing works is expected to provide insights into the machinations of the entire world.