What Is the Truth About the Great Recession and Increasing Inequality?: Dialogues on Disputed Issues and Conflicting Theories

Description

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. Front Matter ....Pages i-x Prologue (Mario Morroni)....Pages 1-4 Increasing Inequality (Mario Morroni)....Pages 5-28 The Failure to Predict the Great Recession (Mario Morroni)....Pages 29-46 Why Fiscal Austerity? (Mario Morroni)....Pages 47-63 Rolling Back the Welfare State (Mario Morroni)....Pages 65-75 The State and the Market (Mario Morroni)....Pages 77-103 The Gigantic German Trade Surplus and the Euro (Mario Morroni)....Pages 105-141 Crisis Policy (Mario Morroni)....Pages 143-164 Environmental Degradation (Mario Morroni)....Pages 165-181 Industrial Policies (Mario Morroni)....Pages 183-190 Back Matter ....Pages 191-204