Product Description

The low-growth years of the past two decades have produced an intense, fascinating debate between economists of rival ideologies. Sadly, they have also produced the policy entrepreneur - the economic snake-oil salesman who offers easy answers to hard problems.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #106959 in Books
• Published on: 1995-04-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .81" h x 5.62" w x 8.66" l, .63 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this intellectual history of recent American economic thought, Krugman ( The Age of Diminished Expectations ) maintains that there is "a constant market for doctrines that play to popular prejudices, whether they make sense or not. In times of economic distress, the search for politically useful ideas . . . takes on a special intensity." He deftly analyzes liberal and conservative academic economists, Keynes and "new Keynesians," as well as "policy entrepreneurs" who, he contends, often offer stylish answers unencumbered by logic or data. Krugman caustically denigrates supply-siders as "ideologues whose economic concepts were cartoonlike in their simplicity." Yet the author, a professor of economics at MIT, is also apprehensive about the pervasive influence of conservative academic economists and of "strategic traders" who have "sold the American public . . . on the idea that our most crucial economic problem is our struggle with other advanced nations for global markets." This benchmark study will stimulate much needed discussion in both academia and Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The major problem addressed in this book is that, when choosing between good economics and good politics, policy makers usually choose good politics. Krugman ( The Age of Diminished Expectations , MIT Pr., 1992) asserts that, just as Reagan became enamored of the dubious ideas of supply-siders, Clinton is in danger of being captured by another economic nostrum, strategic trading. The book also contains a most worthwhile exploration of the last 20 years of macroeconomic theory, policy, and performance. Krugman tells a coherent story rooted in economic commonsense accessible to all readers. His thesis of the good politics of bad economics is challenging and often convincing. Highly recommended for all libraries.
- Richard C. Schiming, Mankato State Univ., Minn.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
An expert on foreign trade, Krugman here charts the fall and rise of the Keynesian explanation for American stagnation since 1973. His main compass is an intellectual feature of our times: the division between academic intellectuals and policy entrepreneurs. This he orients toward the conservative critique ascendent in the 1970s, when a real economist, Milton Friedman, paved the way for supply-side propagandists such as Robert Bartley (Seven Fat Years [1993]). Krugman argues that the same split between theorists and snake-oil purveyors exists among the liberals now in power, exemplified by Labor Secretary Robert Reich (The Work of Nations [1991]), who is a lawyer and talking head--but not an economist who has ever impressed the dons. Beneath the cacophony of popularizers, the solid work of historians and economists goes on, and central to such work is the fact that John Maynard Keynes just won't go away. Krugman's intriguing essay supplies a double-edged dose of clarity that partisans--on the left or right--won't find congenial, but ads and radio interviews may widen interest beyond that of the policy wonks. Gilbert Taylor