Review of John Quiggin's 'Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk among Us'

In the views of the politicians, the economy was not one of a ‘Golden Age’. As the British Cabinet Paper wrote, ‘It is clear that ever since the end of the war we have tried to do too much…we have only rarely been free from danger of economic crisis’. This illustrates the fact that although the economy was not falling apart, it was not stable and not prosperous. There was also a lack of a plan to deal with the economy; the government merely adjusted the system as it went along, which sometimes resulted in high rises of inflation or sudden consumer booms that did not correlate with its ability to pay for them – causing a deficit.

Author Wheelan writes, "Life is about trade-offs, and so is economics." Indeed, so is Naked Economics. This book promises to be a good introduction to economics for the layman. Throughout the book, the author uses easy-to-understand language and vivid examples to illustrate his points in strategic places maintaining a sense of lightness with the readers in reading the material. Here is a summary of each of the 12 Chapters of the book Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan.

This article was published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives and it was written by two Assistant Professors of Economics: Nancy Qian and Nathan Nunn. The former taught at Yale

The book, Common Sense Economics written by James D. Gwartney, Ricahrd L.Stroup, Dwight R. Lee, and Tawni Ferrarini, gives a simple insight for reader into the inner workings economics in a common sense terms. The main point of the book is that to have economic success comes from low interference from the government, the motivation of individuals, and competitive markets.

The book begins by saying that economics has more incorrect arguments than any other study. The two critical reasons for this are: People don’t care about the long term health of the public, as much as the care about the short term gain in their private lives. Special interest groups create or reuse correct-sounding fallacies to promote their viewpoint. Economics consists in looking at more than the immediate policy; It includes seeing the problems of the policy for not just one group but for all groups. The misconception that government spending boosts the Economy, is a result of a system of misconceptions. The fact that, we don’t address deficit spending and inflation and assume that public spending will be covered in taxes, is a delusional dream.

In the United States, we encounter quite a bit of obstacles that we can’t seem to get rid of completely. We as a nation deal with inflation, unemployment, stagflation, recessions, depressions, and so much more. Reading these three articles opened my eyes to the world of economics, and even made me question the society we live in. I’ve learned that sometimes questions can’t be answered, and I learned that once we solve one issue, there is always another issue on its way. These articles made me analyze, and think about the future of economics, and what I can do to try and help the economy. These authors of these three articles make it very clear that there are issues in the United States, and they do an amazing job

For economists and politicians alike, efficiency and equity pose an insoluble trade-off that any administration must determine their stance on. On one hand, classical and neoclassical economists denounce government intervention in the economy by claiming that market achieves its epitome of efficiency when business is responsible for the allocation of scarce resources in their pursuit of profit; on the other hand, Keynesian economists can’t stress enough the role of government in resolving market failures and promoting equity among members of the

READ: Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, Charles Wheeland, W.W. Norton, 2003. Completely- cover to cover.

As a political personality, Robert Reich writes a book that closely relates the deteriorating status of the U.S. economy with the greed of other politicians and the government as a whole. To some extent, Robert Reich pulls out the sense in economy deterioration with the help of pinning the major government policies. Robert Reich 's argument comes out clearly, directly, and at some point presented willfully. From the heading of the topic of the book, what went wrong with our economy and our democracy, and how to fix it, a reader can clearly picture the content of the book that is politics and the financial mess that the United States of America is in today. The book provides a clear, simple, and easy to understand information on how the author, Robert Reich relates the cause a bad financial status for the country and how the government and other wealthy people living in America contribute to causing the financial crisis.

READ: Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, Charles Wheeland, W.W. Norton, 2003. Completely- cover to cover.

The unprecedented government intervention during the massive economic crisis of the late 2000’s was met with varied sentiment of economists (Lee, 2009). For example, economist Marci Rossell felt that government intervention was arbitrary and lacked clarity as to which firms would receive government aid (Lee, 2009). She furthered her argument by stating that if the government bailed out homeowners and banks that were borrowing and lending “over their heads,” they were creating a dangerous precedent to set (Lee, 2009, p.40). However, Rossell praised the Obama administration for having a clear grasp on the economic situation and trusted in this administration’s guidance to recover from the economic crisis. Conversely, economist Steven Schwarcz said that though the government bailout in 2008 would cost more than it would have if the government had reacted more swiftly to early signs of recession, these institutions would collapse and fail without government aid (“How Three Economists,” 2008). If these institutions failed, the ripple effect of this failure to the U.S. economy would be irreparable.

     “In addition to theses endless pleading of self-interest, there is a second main factor that spawns new economic fallacies every day. This is the persistent tendency of men to see only the immediate effects of a given policy, or its effects only on a special group and to neglect

Throughout the novel, The Next Decade, there is a lack of source to be found which gives the author no credibility to his thesis. In the George Friedman makes very interesting and unusual claims in the book. These claims range in relevance and validity, such as the 2008 recession didn’t have as large financial

On the cover of the book the reader sees the animal spirits riding and driving the ups and downs of the economy and that is the basic message of the book. ‘Animal spirits’ was a term created by Keynes and they were in fact the five intellectual and social psychological core phenomena explained in the book by the authors, Akerloff and Shiller. The first animal spirit discussed in the book is confidence and it is portrayed as the foundation of economic behavior. There are moments where confidence can flourish and go beyond the rational. These times are usually considered as the ‘build-up’ times in which the second animal spirit comes into place, corruption and bad faith. The public is unaware of what is good and bad for them and due to this there are several cases in which they are deliberately misinformed about the items they purchase. This is exactly what happened with the re-packaged subprime mortgages. ‘They openly and prominently

There exists an enduring scholarly disagreement as to whether the assumptions of a free market hold, imperative to this is the question of whether laissez-faire is self regulating. The neo- liberal school of thought, with advocates such as Hayek, take diametrically opposing viewpoints to academics such as Polanyi. The former wish to run the economy as a separate entity from society, the latter proposes the embedding of the economy within societal relations. This essay will focus on the opposing views of Hayek and Polanyi. Firstly, society’s role in the