An alarming study of an economic crisis long in the making—and entirely avoidable.
Thoroughgoing report on the student-loan crisis.
Wall Street Journal writer Mitchell writes that student debt in this country “is the size of Canada’s economy,” amounting to $1.6 trillion. That debt is coupled with crippling terms that burden many borrowers with payments that will last throughout their working lives, mostly to service interest, and higher education has not delivered jobs that pay enough to cover them. Indeed, “far from making college affordable, student debt enabled schools to raise their prices in perpetuity, creating a higher education industrial complex that has driven up the price of college—and graduate school—to unprecedented levels.” It’s a vicious chicken-and-egg situation: Student loans are easily obtainable, so easy that many workers in stressful economic times return to school simply to qualify to take out loans to survive; because the money is so abundant, schools, underfunded in the case of most public institutions, feel no restraint to curb their costs. Mitchell tells the story of one woman who married a man who took advantage of her financially, then returned to school in order to better her job prospects and wound up owing a huge debt. She was one of the few to be allowed to discharge her debt legally, but only because a collection agent sympathized with her as she battled cancer. Such circumstances of emergency were not in the design of the loan program, which dates to the administration of Lyndon Johnson. As its founder told the author, “we unleashed a monster.” It’s a monster indeed, and no president since has done anything to tame it. Mitchell notes that under the Obama presidency, “Black families got into debt more than families of any other racial or ethnic group.” This urgent report makes a convincing case for reforming the loan program to allow students “a fair shot at college, at a reasonable price.”
An alarming study of an economic crisis long in the making—and entirely avoidable.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5011-9944-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
This guide to Black culture for White people is accessible but rarely easy.
A former NFL player casts his gimlet eye on American race relations.
In his first book, Acho, an analyst for Fox Sports who grew up in Dallas as the son of Nigerian immigrants, addresses White readers who have sent him questions about Black history and culture. “My childhood,” he writes, “was one big study abroad in white culture—followed by studying abroad in black culture during college and then during my years in the NFL, which I spent on teams with 80-90 percent black players, each of whom had his own experience of being a person of color in America. Now, I’m fluent in both cultures: black and white.” While the author avoids condescending to readers who already acknowledge their White privilege or understand why it’s unacceptable to use the N-word, he’s also attuned to the sensitive nature of the topic. As such, he has created “a place where questions you may have been afraid to ask get answered.” Acho has a deft touch and a historian’s knack for marshaling facts. He packs a lot into his concise narrative, from an incisive historical breakdown of American racial unrest and violence to the ways of cultural appropriation: Your friend respecting and appreciating Black arts and culture? OK. Kim Kardashian showing off her braids and attributing her sense of style to Bo Derek? Not so much. Within larger chapters, the text, which originated with the author’s online video series with the same title, is neatly organized under helpful headings: “Let’s rewind,” “Let’s get uncomfortable,” “Talk it, walk it.” Acho can be funny, but that’s not his goal—nor is he pedaling gotcha zingers or pleas for headlines. The author delivers exactly what he promises in the title, tackling difficult topics with the depth of an engaged cultural thinker and the style of an experienced wordsmith. Throughout, Acho is a friendly guide, seeking to sow understanding even if it means risking just a little discord.
This guide to Black culture for White people is accessible but rarely easy.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-80046-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
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