This course provides a survey of the origins and evolution of capitalism in a global world up to the present, with emphasis on the political economies of the West. Students examine the ideas of the great political economists such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Thomas Robert Malthus, Karl Marx, J.M. Keynes and Friedrich von Hayek, as well as trace the progression of modern industrial economies in Europe and the United States. The course ends with an analysis of the 2008 financial crisis and the Occupy movement.