''Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in an Age of Diminished Expectations'' is a book by Nobel laureate and ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' columnist

Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, who is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, Krugman was ...

, first published in 1994 by W. W. Norton & Company.

Overview

Shortly after its publication, ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'' called it "the best primer around on recent U.S. economic history." In the book Krugman covers the US productivity slowdown that has occurred since the 1970s, changes in the ideology among economists, and offers critiques of both conservative

supply side economics Supply-side economics is a macroeconomic theory that postulates economic growth can be most effectively fostered by lowering taxes, decreasing regulation, and allowing free trade. According to supply-side economics, consumers will benefit fr ...

and liberal support for government intervention in the form of "strategic policy".Marc Levinson of ''

''

/ref> Krugman argues the rise of the supply-side economics is produced by the inability of opposing economists to convincingly explain certain economic phenomena, such as the US productivity slowdown. He criticizes

monetarism Monetarism is a school of thought in monetary economics that emphasizes the role of governments in controlling the amount of money in circulation. Monetarist theory asserts that variations in the money supply have major influences on nation ...

, rational expectations theory, and conservative economists' views on taxes and regulation.Robert Kuttner, American Prospect, 9/96, "SYNOPSIS: Claims Krugman is a Economic do-nothing, twiddling thumbs while America burns. Liberalism should be more active"

/ref> One of the major themes of the book is that the difference between real economics, economic theory and "policy entrepreneurs", who peddle politically popular but academically wrong ideas, is as important as the polarization between the political left and right in America.Sylvia Nasar, "Economic Snake Oil", ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', Books, March 13, 1994

/ref> Krugman describes these "policy entrepreneurs" as non-academics who promote particular intellectual positions and ideological policy prescriptions in areas where a problem is perceived to exist.http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/soc/faculty/winship/policy_entrepreneurs.pdf The success of these so-called "policy entrepreneurs", according to Krugman's is at least partly due to the unwillingness and inability of competing economists to effectively communicate their opposing ideas in a rationally received manner; a shortcoming which Krugman's book is meant to address. A portion of the subtitle of the book refers to an earlier book by Krugman, ''Age of Diminished Expectations'' (1990).

References

Books by Paul Krugman W. W. Norton & Company books 1994 non-fiction books 1990s books {{econ-book-stub