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In Failure by Design, the Economic Policy Institute’s Josh Bivens takes a step back from the acclaimed State of Working America series, building on its wealth of data to relate a compelling narrative of the U.S. economy’s struggle to emerge from the Great Recession of 2008. Bivens explains the causes and impact on working Americans of the most catastrophic economic policy failure since the 1920s. As outlined clearly here, economic growth since the late 1970s has been slow and inequitably distributed, largely as a result of poor policy choices. These choices only got worse in the 2000s, leading to an anemic economic expansion. What growth we did see in the economy was fueled by staggering increases in private-sector debt and a housing bubble that artificially inflated wealth by trillions of dollars. As had been predicted, the bursting of the housing bubble had disastrous consequences for the broader economy, spurring a financial crisis and a rise in joblessness that dwarfed those resulting from any recession since the Great Depression. The fallout from the Great Recession makes it near certain that there will be yet another lost decade of income growth for typical families, whose incomes had not been boosted by the previous decade’s sluggish and localized economic expansion. In its broad narrative of how the economy has failed to deliver for most Americans over much of the past three decades, Failure by Design also offers compelling graphic evidence on jobs, incomes, wages, and other measures of economic well-being most relevant to low- and middle-income workers. Josh Bivens tracks these trends carefully, giving a lesson in economic history that is readable yet rigorous in its analysis. Intended as both a stand-alone volume and a companion to the new State of Working America website that presents all of the data underlying this cogent analysis, Failure by Design will become required reading as a road map to the economic problems that confront working Americans.
Extensively revised and expanded with the most up-to-the-minute data, this new edition of the Field Guide to the U.S. Economy brings key economic issues to life, reflecting the collective wit and wisdom of the many progressive economists affiliated with the Center for Popular Economics. User-friendly and accessible, the book covers a wide range of subjects, including workers, women, people of color, government spending, welfare, education, health, the environment, macroeconomics, and the global economy, as well as brand-new material on the war in Iraq, the Department of Homeland Security, the prison-industrial complex, foreign aid, the environment, and pharmaceutical companies.
As India emerges as a major economic power, producing dollar billionaires rising at the rate of 17 per year, more than 800 million Indians eke out a living on less than two dollars a day. This book takes the reader to the underbelly of the Indian boom, an India that is not shining but is struggling to survive. From the Indo-Soviet Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh, where an aristocracy of labour is increasingly being replaced by a more vulnerable contract labour force, we move to the banks of the Hoogly River. Here, Norwegian shipping companies exploit a precarious labour force that is as vulnerable to the vagaries of global finance and its crisis as the elderly, especially women and wage-workers, who live in the slums of Chennai. Also in Tamil Nadu, but this time in Tiruppur, we find that the garment and textile industries boom has nurtured new regimes of debt bondage among industrial workers. Though public concern about the vulnerability in which poor people find themselves has resulted in new nation-wide schemes framed in the language of rights, we find in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh that the practical workings of these schemes are dependent on the regional political systems in which they are enmeshed. We end in the belly of the Maoist-inspired Naxalite insurgency, denounced by the Indian government as the country’s greatest security challenge, where the poor are being mobilised to rise against the injustices of the Indian state. This book was originally published as a special issue of Economy and Society.
This book explains how sweeping demographic changes have resulted in the ineffectiveness of recent monetary and fiscal policies, and it identifies corrective actions that will start to reverse the trends of low economic growth and widespread government deficits. The field of demographics does not focus on the economic impacts and the funding issues resulting from demographic change. Similarly, economics does not take into account demographic changes. The omissions in both fields are negatively impacting the nation: income reductions caused by demographic changes that have not been accounted for are so large that current fiscal policies are not able to mitigate them. The Puzzle of the American Economy: How Changing Demographics Will Affect Our Future and Influence Our Politics exposes the factors that are undermining the nation's prospects for improving the rate of economic growth and keeping up with citizens' needs for government-provided services. Author Mark A. Pisano explains the hidden drag on the economy that has led to the ineffectiveness of recent monetary and fiscal policies, how uncertainty in economic policymaking is affecting America politically as well as at the individual household level, and why those who are adversely impacted are becoming politically disaffected. He also presents an agenda for corrective individual action. Readers will understand how the results of changes in demographics will last for decades and extend beyond the United States to many developed countries—particularly Japan and nations in Europe—as well as to some developing countries. The book will be of value to students studying macro and micro economics; those in public policy at all levels of government, public administration, and governmental budgeting; and anyone attempting to understand the current dilemma in economic policymaking and our disjointed political process.
First Published in 1986. Economics is in trouble. Its policy instruments are blunt, its experts disagree and its theories are in disarray in the face of global economics disorder: unprecedented levels of indebtedness, endemic inflation, high unemployment , deepening world poverty and gross environmental degradation. The Living Economy analyses conventional economic theory in the light of contemporary economic problems and finds its basic premises and assumptions flawed and its methodology suspect in several important respects. The Living Economy covers a variety of topics from agricultural methods and policy to health and world trade reform. Contributors come from a wide diversity of countries and continents including the USA, Europe, Africa, and the Far East. Each section is worth reading in its own right, for itself and, indeed, by itself. It is a book to be browsed through, reflected upon and enjoyed at one’s leisure. Together the contributions form a rich tapestry of insights and inspirations. They are in no way a simple repetition of Schumacher’s thoughts. Rather, they form an authentic part of a wider intellectual tradition of which he was also a part, albeit an early and important one.
This book describes the deep contradictions plague market economies. It shows how the influence of these contradictions sometimes subsides, allowing the economy to perform relatively well. But in time, these contradictions accumulate and economy declines as if it suffers from some degenerative disease. The policies designed to rise above these contradictions often spawn even more severe contradictions. This book describes how these contradictions have affected the economy of the United States in the past and the dangers that the future poses. For example, policies to stimulate the economy eventually lead to stagnation. Policies to make hold down wages make business even more uncompetitive. It also analyzes the destructive consequences of the military, finance, and the Federal Reserve. Finally, it debunks the mythological promise of a New Economy.
“A hugely valuable contribution. . . . In setting out a defence of the best in economics, Rodrik has also provided a goal for the discipline as a whole.” —Martin Sandbu, Financial Times In the wake of the financial crisis and the Great Recession, economics seems anything but a science. In this sharp, masterfully argued book, Dani Rodrik, a leading critic from within, takes a close look at economics to examine when it falls short and when it works, to give a surprisingly upbeat account of the discipline. Drawing on the history of the field and his deep experience as a practitioner, Rodrik argues that economics can be a powerful tool that improves the world—but only when economists abandon universal theories and focus on getting the context right. Economics Rules argues that the discipline's much-derided mathematical models are its true strength. Models are the tools that make economics a science. Too often, however, economists mistake a model for the model that applies everywhere and at all times. In six chapters that trace his discipline from Adam Smith to present-day work on globalization, Rodrik shows how diverse situations call for different models. Each model tells a partial story about how the world works. These stories offer wide-ranging, and sometimes contradictory, lessons—just as children’s fables offer diverse morals. Whether the question concerns the rise of global inequality, the consequences of free trade, or the value of deficit spending, Rodrik explains how using the right models can deliver valuable new insights about social reality and public policy. Beyond the science, economics requires the craft to apply suitable models to the context. The 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers challenged many economists' deepest assumptions about free markets. Rodrik reveals that economists' model toolkit is much richer than these free-market models. With pragmatic model selection, economists can develop successful antipoverty programs in Mexico, growth strategies in Africa, and intelligent remedies for domestic inequality. At once a forceful critique and defense of the discipline, Economics Rules charts a path toward a more humble but more effective science.
This introductory text on labour economics covers topics such as: the shift in America from a manufacturing-based economy to a service economy; the changes in the economic conditions in the US; the implications of NAFTA and GATT; and the labour markets.