Peddling Prosperity Economic Sense and Nonsense in an Age of Diminished Expectations

by Krugman, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780393312928
• ISBN10: 0393312925
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-04-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

This wonderfully received book finds him in top form, observing the years he's dubbed "the age of diminished expectations." The past twenty years have been an era of economic disappointment in the United States. They have also been a time of intense economic debate, as rival ideologies contend for policy influence. But strange things have happened to economic ideas on their way to power: they've been hijacked by policy entrepreneurs'”economic snake-oil salesmen, right or left, who offer easy answers to hard problems. Supply-siders rose to power with Ronald Reagan and not only cured nothing but left behind a $3 trillion debt. Krugman finds an unhappy parallel in those who shape policy within the Clinton administration.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Introduction: Looking for Magicians	3	(20)
PART I THE RISE OF CONSERVATIVE ECONOMICS
The Attack on Keynes	23	(32)
Taxes, Regulation, and Growth	55	(27)
The Supply-Siders	82	(25)
PART II CONSERVATIVES IN POWER
Growth	107	(23)
Income Distribution	130	(21)
The Budget Deficit	151	(19)
Conservatives Abroad	170	(27)
PART III THE PENDULUM SWINGS
In the Long Run Keynes Is Still Alive	197	(24)
The Economics of QWERTY	221	(24)
The Strategic Traders	245	(23)
Appendix to Chapter 10 Productivity and Competitiveness	268	(13)
Epilogue	281	(12)
Index	293