PositiveThe Guardian (UK)... the latest attempt by economists to defend their profession. It is, happily, an excellent antidote to the most dangerous forms of economics bashing: the efforts of opportunistic politicians to weaponise discontent with mainstream politics and to press it into the service of a xenophobic ideology that denies facts and serves the interests of a nativist, global oligarchy ... The book’s authors write beautifully and are in full command of their subject. They examine the most crucial issues humanity faces with a combination of humility over what economics cannot tell us and pride over its contributions to our limited understanding. On every page, they seek to shed much-needed light upon the distortions that bad economics bring to public debates while methodically deconstructing their false assumptions ... Their own conception of what economists should be doing is disarmingly down to earth ... there are passages in Good Economics… when this reader would have liked a little more of Keynes’s ambition. For without it, the plentiful facts do not go far enough in exposing the deeper causes of our current predicament ... The book’s greatest contribution is its methodical deconstruction of fake facts ... Every book as important as this one must include a theory of change: how shall we use its insights to bring about a more humane world?...This is unconvincing, but it could not be otherwise. To provide a persuasive progressive policy agenda at a time when the usual fixes (quantitative easing, taxation) no longer work, the roots of capitalism’s stagnation and flirtation with climate catastrophe must come to the surface ... Perhaps the greatest contribution of Good Economics… is precisely this: it demonstrates both the brilliant insights that mainstream economics can make available to us and its limits, which a progressive internationalism has a duty to transcend.
Adam Tooze
RaveThe GuardianWritten by Adam Tooze...Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crisis Changed the World combines simple explanations of complex financial concepts with a majestic narrative tracing the prehistory and destructive path of the crisis across the planet (including long, apt and erudite chapters on Russia, the former Soviet satellites, China and south-east Asia). It also offers original insights into the nature of the wounded beast (financialized capitalism) ... Tooze helps dissolve several stereotypes ... Informative, and often delightful, insights are to be found on every page.
