Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track

Newsweek called Paul Krugman a superstar of economics, and Peddling Prosperity the best primer on recent U. S. history. More praise followed. This wonderful book finds him in top form, looking back twenty years to what he calls The Age of Diminished Expectations--a time when economic promise was never fulfilled. In the past two decades, rival economic schools have vied to gain political influence, but strange things happen on the way to power: ideas are hijacked by policy entrepreneurs--snake-oil salesmen right or left who promise easy answers to hard problems. Supply-siders rose with Ronald Reagan and left behind a $3 trillion debt. Krugman observes an unhappy parallel in those who shape policy within the Clinton administration.