The economists' hour : false prophets, free markets, and the fracture of society

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Title:

The economists' hour : false prophets, free markets, and the fracture of society

Author:

Summary:

Tells the story of the conservative economists espousing free market and deregulatory policies during the four decades betweeen 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 deliever 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.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

439 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

Subject Term:

Economic history -- 20th century.

Economics -- History.

Economists.

Publisher:

Little, Brown and Company,

Publication Date:

2019

ISBN:

9780316512329

Publication Information:

New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2019.

Call Number:

330.973 APPELBA

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003432278	Adult Nonfiction	330.973 APPELBA	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

In this "lively and entertaining" history of ideas (Liaquat Ahamed, The New Yorker ), New York Times editorial writer Binyamin Appelbaum tells the story of the people who sparked four decades of economic revolution.
Before the 1960s, American politicians had never paid much attention to economists. But as the post-World War II boom began to sputter, economists gained influence and power.
In The Economists' Hour , Binyamin Appelbaum traces the rise of the economists, first in the United States and then around the globe, as their ideas reshaped the modern world, curbing government, unleashing corporations and hastening globalization.
Some leading figures are relatively well-known, such as Milton Friedman, the elfin libertarian who had a greater influence on American life than any other economist of his generation, and Arthur Laffer, who sketched a curve on a cocktail napkin that helped to make tax cuts a staple of conservative economic policy.
Others stayed out of the limelight, but left a lasting impact on modern life: Walter Oi, a blind economist who dictated to his wife and assistants some of the calculations that persuaded President Nixon to end military conscription; Alfred Kahn, who deregulated air travel and rejoiced in the crowded cabins on commercial flights as the proof of his success; and Thomas Schelling, who put a dollar value on human life.
Their fundamental belief? That government should stop trying to manage the economy. Their guiding principle? That markets would deliver steady growth, and ensure that all Americans shared in the benefits.
But the Economists' Hour failed to deliver on its promise of broad prosperity. And the single-minded embrace of markets has come at the expense of economic equality, the health of liberal democracy, and future generations.
Timely, engaging and expertly researched, The Economists' Hour is a reckoning -- and a call for people to rewrite the rules of the market.
A Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller Winner of the Porchlight Business Book Award in Narrative & Biography

Author Notes

Binyamin Appelbaum writes about economics and business for the editorial page of The New York Times . From 2010 to 2019, he was a Washington correspondent for the Times , covering economic policy in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis. He previously worked for The Charlotte Observer , where his reporting on subprime lending won a George Polk Award and was a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

New York Times correspondent Appelbaum, who won a George Polk Award for his subprime lending reporting, intelligently chronicles the unprecedented influence of economists on public policy during what he dubs "the economists' hour," roughly from 1969 to 2008. He recounts how economists in the U.S. rose from laboring in obscurity in Quonset huts on the National Mall to occupying such lofty roles as secretary of the treasury and chair of the Federal Reserve. Appelbaum is sharply skeptical of the reputed alchemical powers of economists to engineer prosperity, particularly those (Milton Friedman, Alan Greenspan) whose blind adherence to free market principles, he argues, fostered the Great Recession and significant income inequality. He notes that countries that consulted economic theory, but then accorded management of the economy to engineers (as in Taiwan) or the state (as with China) have performed better economically than the U.S. with its policy of minimal government intervention in markets. He also examines the deleterious effects of the unfettered free market philosophy upon health and safety regulations, regulation of industries, and antitrust litigation, concluding that blind reliance on free markets has led to an ossifying plutocratic minority. This thoroughly researched, comprehensive, and critical account of the economic philosophies that have reigned for the past half century powerfully indicts them. (Sept.)

Library Journal Review

New York Times journalist Appelbaum has written a thoughtful history of the role of economists in U.S. government and public policy debates. He argues that this influence has become much more important from the second half of the last century up to the present day, and maintains that the differences between liberal and conservative economists is often overstated; economists have tended to be supportive of consumption over production, free trade, free capital flows across countries, floating exchange rates, deregulation, and the concentration of industries into a relatively few major corporations. Appelbaum is open about his support of a regulated market economy with a strong safety net, but he is far from being simplistically ideological. For example, he believes the decline of U.S. manufacturing was inevitable owing to automation but also suggests it could have been allowed to proceed more slowly, giving time for individuals and the country itself to adjust. A minor flaw in the overall work is that early discussions of military conscription are not well integrated with the rest of the book. VERDICT This work offers an intelligent assessment of free-market thought in modern times and the resultant policies and should prove of interest to those interested in public policy.--Shmuel Ben-Gad, Gelman Lib., George Washington Univ., Washington, DC