Auf ein Miniaturbild klicken, um zu Google Books zu gelangen.
Lädt ... The Economists' Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Societyvon Binyamin Appelbaum
Books Read in 2022 (952) Books Read in 2019 (2,084) Lädt ...
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. The Economist's Hour: The Rise of a Discipline, the Failures of Globalization, and the Road to Nationalism by Binyamin Appelbaum is the study of post World War II economics centered on the United States. Appelbaum is the lead writer on business and economics for the Editorial Board of The New York Times. He joined the board in March 2019. He was previously a Washington correspondent for the Times, covering the Federal Reserve and other aspects of economic policy. For most of the history of the United States, economists had little to do with the practical aspects of economic policy. Hidden away in basements and never in positions of power, in fact, in 1972 George Schultz became the first economist to serve as the Secretary of the Treasury. The recovery of Europe and Japan (and Asia in general) from World War II ended the US reign as the global producer and with it an economic turndown. Economic battles began to emerge as Keynesian policy began to show cracks and fail. Appelbaum examines several areas of the economy or economic issues in this book. One of the first issues addressed in this book is the draft. Today the all volunteer military is easily seen as superior to conscription. Life in the military is hard enough with people who want to be there, let alone people put there against their will. The question becomes, is it more cost effective? That became the struggle. The cost of human life is another issue for economists. There are the insurance aspects of that cost but it also plays a role in regulation. For example, if a safety feature on a car can save a certain amount of lives and costs a certain amount of dollars where does the cost in saved lives exceed the cost of the feature. Adding $50 to a cost of a car to save 1000 lives a year is easily worth it. Adding $1,000 to the cost of a car to save five lives a year would probably not be worth the cost. The Economist's Hour gives the reader an easy to understand study of contemporary economics and its history. It is not a Friedman versus Marx book, but Friedman versus Keynes. It is a practical application of (capitalist) economics and history. -- from interest rates to antitrust. Appelbaum demonstrates to the reader the reach of economics in our everyday life and recent past. This was a very challenging book; and a very important one for people interested in politics. The book had explanations of historical events that we all remember reading about in the news...but this book provided some theoretical context. The economic processes and definitions were sometimes hard to understand since economics can be a very 'abstract' science. I encourage anyone to read this book...I should re-read it before the 2020 elections. keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
Tells the story of the conservative economists espousing free market and deregulatory policies during the four decades between 1969 and 2008. Leading figures such as Milton Friedman, Arthur Laffer, Walter Oi, Alfred Kahn, and Thomas Schelling believed that government should stop trying to manage the economy, and that markets would deliver steady growth and ensure that all Americans shared in the benefits. But, Applelbaum argues, these policies failed to deliver on their promise of broad prosperity, and the singleminded embrace of markets has come at the expense of economic equality, the health of liberal democracy, and future generations. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
Aktuelle DiskussionenKeineBeliebte Umschlagbilder
Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)330.973Social sciences Economics Economics Economic geography and history North America United StatesKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
Bist das du?Werde ein LibraryThing-Autor. |
What particularly struck me is the naked ideology described in the narrative. Milton Friedman shows up repeatedly, bringing a libertarian approach to topics from the draft to tax cuts but his motivation is not evidence, but belief in "freedom". Alan Greenspan is the chief proponent of zero regulation in the financial sector, despite mounting abuses and failures. The narrative highlights the extent to which economists were declaring truths that they did not have evidence for; an unearned confidence that remains today. I don't think Appelbaum believes, nor do I, that the pre-economic ways of thinking were ideal. Tools such as cost-benefit analysis or principles of quantifying problems are clearly beneficial. But for all the economic discussion of positive vs. normative analysis, the ideology clearly shaped (and shapes) the kinds of analyses being proposed, and excludes factors that a society might wish to include. It's particularly shocking when confronted with the human costs of this thinking; in the gutted Rust Belt, in Pinochet's Chile. Even more so when you recognize how deep this neoliberal ideology rooted itself, since most of the relevant actors knew these costs and forged ahead anyway.
I strongly recommend this book; it's an invaluable reminder of the relative newness of certain "facts" that neoliberalism has tended to portray as such. For economists, lauded by society, it's a suggestion to preserve some humility. In an era of rising populism and criticisms of capitalism it remains to be seen whether we can build something better, but I hope this book will give us some of the context to get us there. ( )