What Is the Truth About the Great Recession and Increasing Inequality?

Dialogues on Disputed Issues and Conflicting Theories

Introduction  ̶  The protagonists
Prologue
First Dialogue           Increasing inequality
Second Dialogue      The failure to predict the Great Recession
Third Dialogue         Why fiscal austerity?
Fourth Dialogue       Rolling back the welfare state
Fifth Dialogue          The state and the market
Sixth Dialogue         The gigantic German trade surplus and the euro
Seventh Dialogue     Crisis policy
Eighth Dialogue       Environmental degradation
Ninth Dialogue         Industrial policy
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Glossary
Index

Have you ever puzzled over the causes of the 2007–8 financial crisis and wondered how it will affect all our futures? If so, this book is for you. Using imagined dialogue between three economists with contrasting theoretical perspectives and a student who knows little about economics, different interpretations are compared in straightforward, jargon-free language. The book explores both the consequences of neoliberal economic policies based on the belief in efficient, self-regulating markets and the implications of alternative economic visions formulated in response to the Great Recession. In all, nine dialogues are presented, each of which focuses on a key theme: increasing inequality, the failure of economists to predict the crash, the reasons for fiscal austerity, the rolling back of the welfare state, the roles of the state and the market, the repercussions of the German trade surplus and the Eurozone crisis, policies to confront the crisis, environmental degradation, and the need for an industrial policy appropriate to the present day. The book will be ideal for both general readers and those embarking on the study of economics.

Link to publisher: Springer

Recensione: Book review: Carlo D'Ippoliti, History of Economic Ideas, vol. XXVIII 2020/1, 2020

Recensione: Book review: James Derbyshire, Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, vol. LIII, 2019

Letture teatrali: Gallerie fotografiche letture teatrali Warwick University, 2019 e Queen Mary, University of London, 2019

Theatrical readings: Photogallery theatrical readings Warwick University, 2019 and Queen Mary, University of London, 2019