From the former Fed Chairman and an Economist writer and historian, the full, epic story of America's evolution from a small patchwork of threadbare colonies to the most powerful engine of wealth and innovation the world has ever seen.
Masterful ... Alan remains down-to-earth, extremely articulate and a clear, sharp thinker ... You don’t have to be an economics wonk to enjoy and learn from Capitalism in America. As long as you engage your brain and pay attention, you will find plenty of food for thought in this lucid, accessible potted history of what one might call Capitalism American Style ... Readers — and leaders — seeking a reliable road map to solutions will find many of them in Capitalism in America.
Less a conventional history than an extended polemic, Capitalism in America: A History...explores and ultimately celebrates the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter’s concept of 'creative destruction' ... While this approach risks oversimplifying centuries of American economic history, it provides a useful lens for analyzing America’s current polarization and for understanding the centrifugal forces that have given rise to a President Trump, on the right, or a Bernie Sanders on the left. Other than a few paragraphs arguing the case that the Fed’s easy money policy had little to no impact on the housing bubble that led to the Great Recession, Capitalism in America has almost nothing to say about Greenspan’s own role in recent economic history, and he offers no defense of his tenure as Fed chairman. But that isn’t his purpose here ... The entire book is an indictment of Trump’s stands on immigration and protectionism and his attempts to resurrect fading mining and industrial concerns—attempts that, as Capitalism in America shows repeatedly, are almost surely doomed ... Capitalism in America, in both its interpretation of economic history and its recipe for revival, is likely to offend the dominant Trump wing of the Republican Party and the resurgent left among Democrats. It’s not clear who, if anyone, will pick up the Greenspan torch.
While it is no surprise that Greenspan and Wooldridge have produced this book, they are, I think, broadly correct in their argument ... The argument, however, is one-sided and does have blind spots ... [The various takes on issues within economics] is one of the things that makes this book well worth reading. Greenspan is wise, is trying his best to think things through, wants only the best, and it’s perfectly fine that he thinks very differently than I do. I am pleased to welcome and endorse this contribution to our public conversation today.
