Rating: 
Summary: The facts behind the rhetoric revealed!
Review: As a non-economist who has read several works to better understand what the political, financial, and economic "talking heads" are promoting, there is no better basic book than Peddling Prosperity to shine a light of clarity on a much muddied topic. Mr. Krugman is one of the few economists who can write well in a non-technical manner while sill conveying a decent understanding of the issues. He's even quite humorous at times!Mr. Krugman is quite good at outlining the history and basic tenets of each economic school of thought, and then observing the results of their policies based on economic indicators. He makes a very enlightening distinction between the true academic economist, and the economic policy entrepreneur. Most of the well known economic theorists and experts are the latter, and their goal is not an objective evaluation and observation of economics, but rather a sales-pitch for their own philosophies and points of view. I strongly agree with the other positive reviewers here, so I refer you to their reviews rather than repeat what they have written. My only criticisms with Mr. Krugman are: 1. He often uses information to support his openly Keynesian point of view, while ignoring contradictory information. Therefore, an investigation other points of view is warranted. 2. While he is an equal opportunity critic of both the supply-side & free-market theories, as well as the liberal ones, his answer to most of the questions of economics is a somber, "We just don't know". It seems he often presents and sets up other economists and economic theories as Straw men which he then proceeds to knock down. He does not readily offer anything constructive in their place other than a modest Keynesian proposal. That being said, this is a wonderfully informative and enjoyable book.
Rating:
Summary: Krugman strikes back!
Review: I frequently get into arguments with supply-siders and monetarists who refuse to accept that their beliefs are as flawed as, say, pre-Einsteinian physics (or, perhaps, pre-Newtonian physics). (I do not mean to imply that I or anyone else has a lock on economic "truth"; as Marshall states -- and Krugman quotes -- economics is an engine of discovery, not a body of facts). Krugman's intellectual history of and sociological investigation into modern economic pop doctrines is a brilliant refutation of heterodox beliefs including, of course, supply-siders and monetarists. A wonderful book -- especially for non-economists.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I never read a book on economics before this one because I could never understand them. I don't know why I picked this one to read, but it was wonderful. It is the first time ever that I have actually understood anything at all about economics. Reading this book was a wonderful experience. Actually out of five stars I would give it ten.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding look at economics
Review: I read "Peddling Prosperity" over a vacation, expecting to read a few pages, put it down, and pick up something more entertaining. (I had the latest Grisham waiting in the wings.) How interesting can a book about economics be? Answer- my Grisham never got read. I couldn't put this down. Typically economic treatises are uniformly dull, the author spending pages re-stating his thesis, over and over and over. As one of my college professors told me, economists have two basic rules- 1) The market can decide best. 2) Anyone who questions rule #1 is a communist. I would add a third- 3) bore the reader with technical jargon. Krugman, mercifully, avoids these traps. He distills economics down to its most basic elements in plain English. Krugman is also a more critical thinker than most of his counterparts, carefully making the argument for Keynesian economics and debunking the myths of Reaganomics. Even the most ardent free market enthusiast will find it difficult to explain away Krugman's notes about wealth distribution during the 1980s (the rich got richer, the poor got poorer) and about the disastrous effects of Reagan overseas. Protectionists will have difficulty as well in refuting Krugman's analysis of the disastrous effects of tariff barriers and the insignificance of America's trade deficit. The author has it all correct- the fallacy of protectionism (the strategic traders), the failure of Reaganomics, the positive role government can play in American economic life. What makes "Peddling Prosperity" such a good book is Krugman's skill in translating his thoughts into passages a reader without a Phd can understand. Good work.
Rating:
Summary: A Well-Written and Insightful Book
Review: In this easy-to-read book, Prof. Krugman proves his worth as one of the most distinguished economists of his generation and a Clark medal recipient (awarded every two years to "the best" US economist under 40). The book's ten chapters are wonderfully clear and fast-moving, easily understood by anyone with just a little economics in their background. Krugman lucidly explains the economic issues and undercurrents that have driven the US economy over the last few decades. Although the book lacks some of his personal brand of overt diatribes and personal attacks you'd find in his NYTimes column or elsewhere, it still manages to pack a wallop of personality. For example, Krugman is insightful and shamefully entertaining in his condemnation of the extreme conservatism of Robert Bartley & the WSJ editorial page, mainly in Bartley's (ab)use of the page as a pulpit to catapult the supply-siders to relative celebrity in the 80s. As strong as his views are, Krugman has managed to strike a wondrous balance between technical economic concepts and uncomplicated, intelligible layman's terms. The bottom line?Pick it up to be educated and entertained all in one go.
Rating:
Summary: A Well-Written and Insightful Book
Review: In this easy-to-read book, Prof. Krugman proves his worth as one of the most distinguished economists of his generation and a Clark medal recipient (awarded every two years to "the best" US economist under 40). The book's ten chapters are wonderfully clear and fast-moving, easily understood by anyone with just a little economics in their background. Krugman lucidly explains the economic issues and undercurrents that have driven the US economy over the last few decades. Although the book lacks some of his personal brand of overt diatribes and personal attacks you'd find in his NYTimes column or elsewhere, it still manages to pack a wallop of personality. For example, Krugman is insightful and shamefully entertaining in his condemnation of the extreme conservatism of Robert Bartley & the WSJ editorial page, mainly in Bartley's (ab)use of the page as a pulpit to catapult the supply-siders to relative celebrity in the 80s. As strong as his views are, Krugman has managed to strike a wondrous balance between technical economic concepts and uncomplicated, intelligible layman's terms. The bottom line?Pick it up to be educated and entertained all in one go.
Rating:
Summary: Stimulating journey into the world of macroeconomics
Review: Krugman sets out by stating that this book is about search. Search for what really makes our society and what the connections between politics and economics might be. He acknowledges that economic science (some hesitate to even call it "science") does not have all the answers but the models it provides, as imperfect and insufficient they may be, are a good starting point in explaining the intricate dependencies in a given economy. The book is mainly an account of the conservative economic thought and particularly its time of glory during the eighties when economics became an important campaign issue for Reagan and the "supply-siders" advisors, much to the detriment of the US economy and the American people. Krugman does not only acknowledge facts, he also sets out on explaining why things went wrong. He does that unequivocally: Reagan had no idea what he was talking about and his "reform" program turned out to be a total fiasco; widening income disparities, high unemployment rate, and a nation up to its eyeballs in debt. I particularly think that the overview he provides to economic ideas such as Keynesianism, monetarism, along with issues related to taxation, inflation, productivity, and international trade are the mark of a man who has done some thinking on the matter. Also, for the interested student of economics, there are plenty of pointers to theorists and papers, a real wealth of economic thought. Krugman's view approaches a laissez faire paradigm; he believes in free markets with just a touch of Keynesianism. Throughout the book he basically argues that in any given society value is achieved only through increasing productivity, politicians have no real power over the economy (the Fed does), and international trade, "increasing competition", and globalization are no real threat to any economy as long as productivity keeps rising. Moreover, the right policies at the wrong time tend to have really nasty effects on the economy. A case in point: Britain during the Thatcher years. So, for now, I guess we're safe.
Rating:
Summary: Plain english explanation of economic theories and history
Review: One of the things that interested me in Krugman is he is one of the most cited current economists. I can see why, he breaks down complicated economic discussion into plain English - and explains how some other people who break down economics in easy-to-understand English are [unacceptable], whether conservative (supply siders) or liberal (strategic traders), and how some of them are not, from Keynes to Friedman. I've been trying to bone up on economics, and this book has helped me understand concepts I've heard the names of before in other sources like rational expectations, monetarism, Keynesianism, supply side economics and so forth. He also gives a picture of the US (and European) economy in the 20th century, and a history of economic thought from the conservative attack on Keynes led by Friedman, to the liberal counter-attack up until 1994, when the book was written. For anyone trying to understand economics, this is a good book, without a right-wing axe to grind since he's a liberal. I've been reading the critiques of capitalist political economy from Marx to his successors (as well as some socialists outside of the Marxian sphere, though the Marxists due dominate socialist economic discourse up to this day), and from that standpoint, Krugman looks something like a bourgeois liberal, but his work is enlightening and seems honest so I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Plain english explanation of economic theories and history
Review: One of the things that interested me in Krugman is he is one of the most cited current economists. I can see why, he breaks down complicated economic discussion into plain English - and explains how some other people who break down economics in easy-to-understand English are [unacceptable], whether conservative (supply siders) or liberal (strategic traders), and how some of them are not, from Keynes to Friedman. I've been trying to bone up on economics, and this book has helped me understand concepts I've heard the names of before in other sources like rational expectations, monetarism, Keynesianism, supply side economics and so forth. He also gives a picture of the US (and European) economy in the 20th century, and a history of economic thought from the conservative attack on Keynes led by Friedman, to the liberal counter-attack up until 1994, when the book was written. For anyone trying to understand economics, this is a good book, without a right-wing axe to grind since he's a liberal. I've been reading the critiques of capitalist political economy from Marx to his successors (as well as some socialists outside of the Marxian sphere, though the Marxists due dominate socialist economic discourse up to this day), and from that standpoint, Krugman looks something like a bourgeois liberal, but his work is enlightening and seems honest so I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Very professional and witty
Review: Published in 1994, PEDDLING PROSPERITY by Paul Krugman establishes the intellectually substantial foundation of the current political economy columnist for the New York Times. Today he has a name as a leading critic of the tax cutting fiscal policies of a younger President Bush, but this book is proof of his ability to outwit nonsense in the political arena whenever he is sure that the mainstream university professors of economics will back him up. Reading this book was like a roller coaster ride for me, bringing back that sense of uneasiness that I never escaped as long as Nixon was alive. The best evidence that this book was finished before Nixon's death in 1994 is the footnote on page 260 about computing overall productivity according to `a recent study by Robert Lawrence of Harvard University and Matthew Slaughter of MIT: "Trade and U.S. Wages: Great Sucking Sound or Small Hiccup" (forthcoming).' In this great roller coaster ride, Chapter 10 at the end of the book was the sudden dip in total darkness near the end, when a strobe flash and digital camera took a picture of each car in the instant of weightlessness that looks like shock in the prints available where riders exit from the roller coaster cars. There was a warning in Chapter 9 that we were heading in this direction: "So there won't really be a race to see who gets the global jackpot." (p. 242). It just gets funnier than I remember it being at the time. Sudden drops began happening even before this book was finished for the political movement of those `who came briefly to be known as "Atari Democrats," . . . (The label was dropped after Atari moved its production to Asia in 1983.)' (pp. 249-250). The American economy continues to grow, as is usually expected, and the big story in this book is how those who absorb an idea or two from economists promote political remedies when economic problems become too obvious. I like the charts in the book, particularly Figures 1 (p. 25), 2 (p. 42), and 3 (p. 46), which are explained well in the text. Figure 2 has data from 1961 to 1969 showing a clear line, the Phillips curve, with a tremendous increase in inflation for unemployment rates less than 4 percent. Assuming that the 1960s reflected economic reality, "This conclusion was actually written into law: the much-ignored Humphrey-Hawkins bill of 1978 in fact requires the U.S. government to seek to achieve a 4 percent unemployment rate." (p. 43). A larger chart in Figure 3 shows how the events spiraled out of control, with unemployment over 8 percent in 1975 and inflation exceeding 12 percent in 1974, 1979, and 1980. I think Robert Mundell called this moving the Phillips curve in his Nobel Prize Address in 1999 on international currencies in the twentieth century, but Krugman's label for "Figure 3 . . . But that tradeoff fell apart, just as Milton Friedman had predicted." (p. 46) would seem to imply that the curve was fictitious all along. Political economy seems to be more like generating enthusiasm for a particular thing. University economists are so entangled in maintaining their overall big picture that people engaged in a single task are likely to become far too eccentric to suit the professors. Krugman attempts to employ his generalizations about supply-siders like "Robert Bartley, who has run the editorial page of `The Wall Street Journal' since 1972" (p. 83) to "The one figure in the supply-side group who does not at first blush fit the outsider image is Robert Mundell, who is surely the movement's intellectual luminary." If you can believe Mundell's Nobel Prize Address of 1999, Mundell wrote a paper for the IMF in 1961 which suggested tax cuts in the American income tax which did not actually take effect until 1964, but which started a lot of people thinking about how they could increase their income if taxes became less prohibitive. After that worked for a while, Krugman reports: "The fact is that around 1970 Mundell veered off from conventionality in a number of ways. Some of these were superficial: he began to wear his hair long and to speak in a low mumble." (p. 88). It sounds to me like a bad case of young too late but dumber than ever. No sense keeping up appearances when the world fails to conform to professional standards. My own interpretation of what next??? for people in those times is a Heraclitus philosophy: You can't go down twice to the same river. My other favorite wits of political economy do not do well in PEDDLING PROSPERITY, and it is hard to imagine how that could be improved in today's world. "Thorstein Veblen went from his brilliant THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS to write a really terrible book (THE ENGINEERS AND THE PRICE SYSTEM) purporting to explain economic slumps." (p. 26). The explanation which follows, of recession being caused by financial conditions when the desire in the marketplace is primarily for more money instead of more goods, called "Keynes's Theory of Recessions" (pp. 26-34) is the intellectual foundation for much of the analysis in this book. John Kenneth Galbraith gets credit for thinking we should "see our political process as a faithful representation of the interests of the only part of the electorate that matters--the relatively well-off top 20 percent of the income distribution." (p. 6). That might be a larger group than the number of people who could vote in America when the United States Constitution was drafted in the 1780s. Galbraith comes up again as an example of "This almost Freudian conflict between professors and pundits is always ready to break out; . . ." (p. 13). In 1967, Galbraith's THE NEW INDUSTRIAL STATE was like a description of the state of mind of people working or directing the tasks of workers. Not a bit like thinking that could win the Nobel Prize in Economics.
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