Description:Wealth and Freedom provides a comprehensive introduction to political economy for the student or other interested nonspecialist. The book explores such key issues as: the place of our economy in the larger social system, the importance of market institutions for individual autonomy, private enterprise as a system of economic development, poverty and inequality in market economies, global inequality, the limits of the market and the role of government. The book is distinctive in employing a rights-based approach to understanding and evaluating economic institutions.