In order to examine the possible direction of capitalism the author first identifies the nature of his quarry, providing a succinct overview of what it is not. Once he has established how captialsm and the market work in contrast to other coordinative mechanisms in society, namely tradition and command, he explores capitalism as both an economic system and a political order and demonstrates how these two interrelate. Finally, after a thorough inquiry into the inner workings of the market system, he briefly describes and compares past scenarios for capitalism as posited by Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and Joseph Schumpeter, then discusses what he believes might be in store for us in years to come.