Uncovering cant and weak practice with some common sense and plenty of experience, Harford puts the art of macroeconomics...
It’s hard enough to manage, or even understand, our own finances. The “Undercover Economist” seeks to teach us how to manage the economic affairs of nations.
Before we can fix the world’s dysfunctional economies, Financial Times columnist Harford (Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure, 2011, etc.) would have us understand the forces that make national and global fortunes thrive or fail—i.e., macroeconomics. Harford is a Socratic sort of tutor; here, he presents the questions from the point of view of a wonkish student. Money, we learn, encompasses three things: a store of value, a medium of exchange and a means of accounting. Harford neatly defines such terms as “nominal GDP targeting,” “recession,” “liquidity trap,” “price rigidity,” “consumption smoothing” and “spending multiplier.” Remarkably, it is all quite accessible and occasionally waggish. Readers will easily follow a discussion of stimulus versus austerity and determining the right amount of inflation (3 or 4 percent). The author also notes that printing money is sometimes a good practice. John Maynard Keynes, the patriarch of modern macroeconomics, is the right fellow for the short term, and the classic economists are fine for the long haul. As the recent crisis teaches, understanding and managing a global economy is difficult and complex, requiring many thinkers. Harford examines Keynes, Paul Samuelson, Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz and other wise practitioners. There is much to learn from the Underground Economist’s primer, though against whom he is striking back, as the title has it, isn’t clear. Readers may not be called upon to manipulate the world’s economies, but the next time a conversation turns to the “Phillips Curve,” Harford’s students need not be excluded.
Uncovering cant and weak practice with some common sense and plenty of experience, Harford puts the art of macroeconomics within reach, making the unruly study considerably less dismal.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59463-140-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.
A well-constructed critique of an economic system that, by the author’s account, is a driver of the world’s destruction.
Harvard Business School professor Henderson vigorously questions the bromide that “management’s only duty is to maximize shareholder value,” a notion advanced by Milton Friedman and accepted uncritically in business schools ever since. By that logic, writes the author, there is no reason why corporations should not fish out the oceans, raise drug prices, militate against public education (since it costs tax money), and otherwise behave ruinously and anti-socially. Many do, even though an alternative theory of business organization argues that corporations and society should enjoy a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit, which includes corporate investment in what economists call public goods. Given that the history of humankind is “the story of our increasing ability to cooperate at larger and larger scales,” one would hope that in the face of environmental degradation and other threats, we might adopt the symbiotic model rather than the winner-take-all one. Problems abound, of course, including that of the “free rider,” the corporation that takes the benefits from collaborative agreements but does none of the work. Henderson examines case studies such as a large food company that emphasized environmentally responsible production and in turn built “purpose-led, sustainable living brands” and otherwise led the way in increasing shareholder value by reducing risk while building demand. The author argues that the “short-termism” that dominates corporate thinking needs to be adjusted to a longer view even though the larger problem might be better characterized as “failure of information.” Henderson closes with a set of prescriptions for bringing a more equitable economics to the personal level, one that, among other things, asks us to step outside routine—eat less meat, drive less—and become active in forcing corporations (and politicians) to be better citizens.
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5417-3015-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
A welcome contribution from a newcomer who provides both a different view and balance in addressing one of the country's...
A fresh, provocative analysis of the debate on education and employment.
Up-and-coming economist Moretti (Economics/Univ. of California, Berkeley) takes issue with the “[w]idespread misconception…that the problem of inequality in the United States is all about the gap between the top one percent and the remaining 99 percent.” The most important aspect of inequality today, he writes, is the widening gap between the 45 million workers with college degrees and the 80 million without—a difference he claims affects every area of peoples' lives. The college-educated part of the population underpins the growth of America's economy of innovation in life sciences, information technology, media and other areas of globally leading research work. Moretti studies the relationship among geographic concentration, innovation and workplace education levels to identify the direct and indirect benefits. He shows that this clustering favors the promotion of self-feeding processes of growth, directly affecting wage levels, both in the innovative industries as well as the sectors that service them. Indirect benefits also accrue from knowledge and other spillovers, which accompany clustering in innovation hubs. Moretti presents research-based evidence supporting his view that the public and private economic benefits of education and research are such that increased federal subsidies would more than pay for themselves. The author fears the development of geographic segregation and Balkanization along education lines if these issues of long-term economic benefits are left inadequately addressed.
A welcome contribution from a newcomer who provides both a different view and balance in addressing one of the country's more profound problems.Pub Date: May 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-75011-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
