A clear, authoritative guide to the crisis of 2008, its continuing repercussions, and the needed reforms ahead.
The U.S. economy lost the first decade of the twenty-first century to an ill-conceived boom and subsequent bust. It is in danger of losing another decade to the stagnation of an incomplete recovery. How did this happen? Read this lucid explanation of the origins and long-term effects of the recent financial crisis, drawn in historical and comparative perspective by two leading political economists.
By 2008 the United States had become the biggest international borrower in world history, with more than two-thirds of its $6 trillion federal debt in foreign hands. The proportion of foreign loans to the size of the economy put the United States in league with Mexico, Indonesia, and other third-world debtor nations. The massive inflow of foreign funds financed the booms in housing prices and consumer spending that fueled the economy until the collapse of late 2008. This was the most serious international economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Menzie Chinn and Jeffry Frieden explain the political and economic roots of this crisis as well as its long-term effects. They explore the political strategies behind the Bush administration’s policy of funding massive deficits with foreign borrowing. They show that the crisis was foreseen by many and was avoidable through appropriate policy measures. They examine the continuing impact of our huge debt on the continuing slow recovery from the recession. Lost Decades will long be regarded as the standard account of the crisis and its aftermath.
Good first book on the crisis but missing major component. I thought this was a pretty clear, well articulated book by two academics [an economist and a political scientist] explaining broadly what caused America to go down a series of wrong turns. It reads quite well for a book written by academics and its easily possible to read it in one sitting if you have 8 or so hours lying around [like on a plane].But there are a number of problems with the book, that if you have read other ‘economic crisis porn’, quickly jump at you. First, when…
Exceptional; a real service in these complex times These authors offer a valuable overview of complex processes surrounding the recent/current/on-going financial crises. The focus is on U.S. conditions and policies, but this (inevtably) includes critical issues of how the U.S. is tied into international lending, trade, finance, etc.The authors do not focus on minute details of events and personalities, unlike many it not most of the books I have seen (which favor a more thrilling, gossipy approach). Rather, they offer a lucid…