The Economists' Hour
False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society
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Narrated by:
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Dan Bittner
About this listen
In this fascinating character-driven history, a New York Times editorial writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist spotlights the American economists who championed the rise of markets and fundamentally reshaped the modern world.
Before the 1960s, American politicians had never paid much attention to economists. But as the post-World War II boom began to sputter, economists gained influence and power - first in the United States and then around the world as their ideas inspired nations to curb government, unleash corporations, and hasten globalization.
Milton Friedman's libertarian ideals, Arthur Laffer's supply-side economics and Paul Volcker's austere campaign against inflation all left a profound mark on American life. So did lesser-known figures like Walter Oi, a blind economist whose calculations influenced President Nixon's decision to end military conscription; Alfred Kahn, who deregulated air travel; and Thomas Schelling, who put a dollar value on human life.
The economists promised steady growth and broadly-shared prosperity, but they failed to deliver. Instead, the single-minded embrace of markets has come at the expense of soaring economic inequality, the faltering health of liberal democracy, and the prospects of future generations.
Timely, engaging, and expertly researched, The Economists' Hour is a "powerful must-read" (Mohamed A. El-Erian, New York Times best-selling author) about the rise and fall of a revolution - and a compelling call for people to retake control of markets.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 Binyamin Appelbaum (P)2019 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"I very much enjoyed reading The Economists' Hour, an entertaining and well-written look at how market-oriented ideas rose from the academy and transformed nations. I do not agree with each and every perspective, but found this a valuable and highly recommendable book, which I devoured in a single sitting." (Tyler Cowen, author of The Great Stagnation)
"Binyamin Appelbaum has written a powerful must-read for all those interested in reinvigorating the credibility of economics, especially in policymaking circles. Through an engaging discussion of how economists' influence grew and spread, he shows how free-market economics evolved into an over-promising 'affirming religion', only to disappoint too many of its followers and lead others astray. His insightful analysis also helps us identify what's needed to ensure that the market economy remains 'one of humankinds most awesome inventions.'" (Mohamed A. El-Erian, author of New York Times best sellers When Markets Collide and The Only Game in Town)
"Writing in accessible language of thorny fiscal matters, the author ventures into oddly fascinating corners of recent economic history...Anyone who wonders why government officials still take the Laffer curve seriously need go no further than this lucid book." (Kirkus)
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Hostile Takeover is a rebellious challenge to the "upper management" of government, who are choking American prosperity and liberty. Matt Kibbe exposes the privileged collusion of Washington insiders - and maps out a proven plan for how to return power from the self-appointed "experts" back to the people. Dubbed "one of the Tea Party's masterminds" by Newsweek, Kibbe reveals how grassroots citizens can and will check the federal behemoth and restore the American enterprise.
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An amazing book from an interesting perspective
- By Aaron on 12-28-12
By: Matt Kibbe
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Aftershock
- The Next Economy and America’s Future
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Robert Reich
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The author of 12 acclaimed books, Robert B. Reich is a Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and has served in three national administrations. While many blamed Wall Street for the financial meltdown, Aftershock points a finger at a national economy in which wealth is increasingly concentrated at the top - and where a grasping middle class simply does not have the resources to remain viable.
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Very plausible assessment of our economy
- By CAR TOP CAMPER on 10-06-10
By: Robert B. Reich
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How Are You Going to Pay for That?
- Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics
- By: Ryan Cooper
- Narrated by: Ryan Cooper
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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How Are You Going to Pay for That? is filled with engaging discussions and detailed strategies that policymakers and citizens alike can use to assail even the most entrenched lines of neoliberal logic and start to undo these long-held misconceptions. Equal parts economic theory, history, and political polemic, this is an essential roadmap for winning the key battles to come.
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Not horrible but not correct either
- By David on 03-20-23
By: Ryan Cooper
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The Forgotten Depression
- 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself
- By: James Grant
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1920-1921, Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding met a deep economic slump by seeming to ignore it, implementing policies that most 21st-century economists would call backward. Confronted with plunging prices, wages, and employment, the government balanced the budget and, through the Federal Reserve, raised interest rates. No "stimulus" was administered, and a powerful, job-filled recovery was under way by late 1921. Yet by 1929, the economy spiraled downward as the Hoover administration adopted the policies that Wilson and Harding had declined to put in place.
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Best thinking-sharpener I know of
- By Philo on 03-11-20
By: James Grant
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Russia's Crony Capitalism
- The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy
- By: Anders Aslund
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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This insightful study explores how the economic system Vladimir Putin has developed in Russia works to consolidate control over the country. By appointing his close associates as heads of state enterprises and by giving control of the FSB and the judiciary to his friends from the KGB, he has enriched his business friends from Saint Petersburg with preferential government deals. Thus, Putin has created a super wealthy and loyal plutocracy that owes its existence to authoritarianism.
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great book, so so narration
- By Rob on 05-20-19
By: Anders Aslund
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New Deal or Raw Deal?
- How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America
- By: Burton Folsom Jr.
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In this shocking and groundbreaking new book, economic historian Burton Folsom, Jr., exposes the idyllic legend of Franklin D. Roosevelt as a myth of epic proportions. With questionable moral character and a vendetta against the business elite, Roosevelt created New Deal programs marked by inconsistent planning, wasteful spending, and opportunity for political gain---ultimately elevating public opinion of his administration but falling flat in achieving the economic revitalization that America needed.
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A must listen!
- By Book and Movie Lover on 06-14-09
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Beyond Outrage
- What Has Gone Wrong with Our Economy and Our Democracy, and How to Fix Them
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Robert B. Reich
- Length: 3 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert B. Reich urges Americans to get beyond mere outrage about the nation’s increasingly concentrated wealth and corrupt politics in order to mobilize and to take back our economy and democracy. Americans can’t rely only on getting good people elected, Reich argues, because nothing positive happens in Washington unless good people outside Washington are organized to help make those things happen after the election. But in order to be effectively mobilized, we need to see the big picture.
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Falls short
- By J. Klinghoffer on 11-04-13
By: Robert B. Reich
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The Alchemists
- Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire
- By: Neil Irwin
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Neil Irwin’s The Alchemists is a gripping account of the most intense exercise in economic crisis management we’ve ever seen, a poker game in which the stakes have run into the trillions of dollars. The book begins in, of all places, Stockholm, Sweden, in the 17th century, where central banking had its rocky birth, and then progresses through a brisk but dazzling tutorial on how the central banker came to exert such vast influence over our world, from its troubled beginnings to the age of Greenspan, bringing the listener into the present with a marvelous handle on how these figures and institutions became what they are.
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Couldn't Listen to this narrator
- By Donald on 07-23-13
By: Neil Irwin
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Why Save the Bankers?
- And Other Essays on Our Economic and Political Crisis
- By: Thomas Piketty, Seth Ackerman - translator
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Thomas Piketty's work has proved that unfettered markets lead to increasing inequality. Without meaningful regulation, capitalist economies will concentrate wealth in an ever smaller number of hands. Armed with this knowledge, democratic societies face a defining challenge: fending off a new aristocracy. For years Piketty has wrestled with this problem in his monthly newspaper column, which pierces the surface of current events to reveal the economic forces underneath.
By: Thomas Piketty, and others
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The Fourth Revolution
- The Global Race to Reinvent the State
- By: John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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From the best-selling authors of The Right Nation, a visionary argument that our current crisis in government is nothing less than the fourth radical transition in the history of the nation-state. Dysfunctional government: It' s become a cliché, and most of us are resigned to the fact that nothing is ever going to change. As John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge show us, that is a seriously limited view of things. In fact, there have been three great revolutions in government in the history of the modern world.
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A must read for everyone wondering whats going?
- By Truth-be-told on 03-30-15
By: John Micklethwait, and others
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Building the New American Economy
- Smart, Fair, and Sustainable
- By: Jeffrey D. Sachs, Bernie Sanders - foreward
- Narrated by: Rudy Sanda
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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With a nation seemingly more divided than ever, many worry that Americans risk losing ground on solving the complex, interrelated problems the country faces - including rising inequality, the specter of climate change, astronomical health care costs, and economic stagnation. The renowned economist Jeffrey D. Sachs offers a practical approach to move America toward a new consensus: sustainable development.
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If only....
- By Baboo TH on 01-24-18
By: Jeffrey D. Sachs, and others
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The World Turned Upside Down
- America, China, and the Struggle for Global Leadership
- By: Clyde Prestowitz
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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When China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, most experts expected the WTO rules and procedures would liberalize China and make it "a responsible stakeholder in the liberal world order". But the experts made the wrong bet. China today is liberalizing neither economically nor politically but, if anything, becoming more authoritarian and mercantilist. In this book, renowned globalization and Asia expert Clyde Prestowitz describes the key challenges posed by China and the strategies America and the Free World must adopt to meet them.
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Informative and engaging
- By Christopher P Pratt on 02-28-21
By: Clyde Prestowitz
What listeners say about The Economists' Hour
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-05-23
Pretty good
This is a great book, but the conclusion sucks though. Otherwise it’s a very worthwhile listen and very informative
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- Owen Davis
- 10-24-19
Good book, lacking performance
The book is a good popular history of the rightward turn in 20th century politics and the role libertarian and neoclassical economists played in that shift. Avoids some deeper questions over the nature of economics as a discipline and the role of institutions in shaping ideology. But it's a well written and engaging history.
The performance would have been fine if not for some inexcusable mispronunciations, the most glaring of which is Keynes, which the reader pronounces as if it rhymes with "teens." For an economist of Keynes' towering importance -- and whose name comes up scores of times -- this is inexcusable. For those unfamiliar, imagine a reading of a book on classical philosophy which pronounces Socrates as the English words "sew" and "crates." It's that bad. Almost made me turn it off. How did no one catch this?
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1 person found this helpful
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- JudyKay Lindholm
- 08-24-20
Well researched & written
If you’ve ever wondered why we are where we are, or why we did what we did, or why things happened a certain way, this book sheds light on several historical events all of which were driven by and can be traced to an economics.
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- Jylene Livengood
- 06-30-22
useful and interesting
this is a gifted, skilled economist showing he is also a skilled storyteller. That's a crucial skill since stories are how humans understand our world. Applebaum is giving us insight into a critical area of study which, over the last century, has had increasing impact on the day to day experience of our lives.
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- PKD of NY
- 03-14-20
Great historical perspective
The book explains the economical shifts in philosophy and policy that have occurred over the past century, that have created the present day economy. I found it very informative and helpful in understanding the conditions and policies that have created our current global economy.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Heather Phillips
- 11-01-19
excellent narrative explanation
I really enjoyed listening to this. The book is filled with quotes that lend highly relevant perspective on how we got where we are today with regard to economics and economic thinking. Highly recommended!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Mordy Hurwich-Kehat
- 02-17-20
It's the economy, stupid!
This is a very important and engaging story.
We're in a bad place. A rip of anger has been growing in the fabric of our society, and it's largely about the distribution of our nation's prosperity and opportunities, and the sense of fairness or lack thereof.
These have been largely the work of economists who, when their "hour" came, brought their monetary, fiscal, regulatory and free market theories out of the lecture halls and into the halls of power, out of academic journals and conferences, and into public policy and legislation.
Binyamin Appelbaum traces the arc of the economists' ascent, jousting and impact over the past seventy-five years, and the resultant rising, falling and diverging wealth of nations and individuals which have brought us to today's reckoning.
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- Andrew George
- 01-03-21
Sarcasm does not come through in print
Start with the final chapter to get the tone. It would have saved me challenges with the first few chapters.
It covers the Keynes v Milton in action rather than in publication. I like Milton's point on neighborhood effects and administration costs, but it seems like every political interaction he has is to push complete deregulation. I hate the tone and attempt of using algebra to legitimize non-cited assertions in theory of employment, but, while an ineffective communicator in print, it seems Keynes did cause less damage in the real world.
I would attribute the success and failure of economics to an absence of appropriate forum. Economics should be presented in a peer review format with debate and never taken from any individual. I guess that counts as a free market failure...
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- Fountain of Chris
- 09-06-19
One-sided ridicule of economists
This is not necessarily a criticism of the book, but it almost seems like this was written in 2009, stored on a hard drive for a decade, and then had a concluding chapter slapped on so it could be published in 2019. What I mean is that one should not go into this expecting a detailed breakdown of how what economists did from 1960-2010 got us to where we are today.
As one would expect from a lead writer on The New York Times' Editorial Board, the book is well-written and accessible. It is written for the layperson, but does have a rather obvious leftward bias. That doesn't make it right or wrong, but it is something to be aware of going in. Appelbaum chooses Milton Friedman as his principle antagonist, with a shift toward Greenspan in the book's final chapters.
You'll be left with a generally negative perception of economists, whether or not that was Appelbaum's intention - My guess is that it was. There is no mention of liberal economists like Paul Krugman or Robert Reich, passing reference to Joseph Stiglitz, and nothing said about Thomas Piketty's 600-page bestselling economics book, "Capital in the Twenty-First Century".
I thought "The Economist's Hour" as a concept had a lot of potential. There are a lot of growing pains associated with economics as it has come to prominence, but I think Appelbaum let his initial thesis be combined with confirmation bias as he made his case.
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49 people found this helpful
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- Giorgo Sertsios
- 02-13-20
Biased
The book was interesting. although I agree with many of its premises I disliked how the author cherry picked evidence and quotes, or how he jumped to conclusions using causal statements.
Why he omitted that inequality has declined sharply in Chile in the last 15 years? Why compare chilean gdp growth to Taiwan instead to countries in Latinamerica? My guess is that he wants to emphasize the flaws of the market (which are many), but he always belittled the benefits which are substantial. The biased views takes away credibility in the authors conclusions in my opinion....
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9 people found this helpful