David Ricardo, a British economist, was born in London in 1772. He left school at the age of fourteen to join a brokerage house; by his mid-20s he had amassed a fortune on the stock market. In his first work on economic theory, The High Price of Bullion a Proof of the Depreciation of Bank Notes (1809), he argued for a sound currency based on metal. In his major work Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817), …showed first 75 words of 1804 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1804 total…that tampering with the system would only result in further economic stagnation. These theories and others will be debated and tested. Some will be accepted, some modified, and others rejected as we search to answer these basic questions: How do we decide what to produce with our limited resources? How do we ensure stable prices and full employment of resources? How do we provide a rising standard of living both for now and the future?