Lost Decades: The Making of America's Debt Crisis and the Long Recovery - Hardcover

Chinn, Menzie D.; Frieden, Jeffry A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393076504 ISBN 13: 9780393076509

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011

Synopsis

Two acclaimed political economists explore the origins and long-term effects of the financial crisis in historical and comparative perspective.

Welcome to Argentina: by 2008 the United States had become the biggest international borrower in world history, with almost half of its 6.4 trillion dollar federal debt in foreign hands. The proportion of foreign loans to the size of the economy put the United States in league with Mexico, Pakistan, and other third-world debtor nations. The massive inflow of foreign funds financed the booms in housing prices and consumer spending that fueled the economy until the collapse of late 2008.

The authors explore the political and economic roots of this crisis as well as its long-term effects. They explain the political strategies behind the Bush administration's policy of funding massive deficits with the foreign borrowing that fed the crisis. They see the continuing impact of our huge debt in a slow recovery ahead. Their clear, insightful, and comprehensive account will long be regarded as the standard on the crisis.

About this title

About the Author:

Menzie D. Chinn teaches at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and coauthors the influential blog Econbrowser.

Jeffry A. Frieden is Professor of Government at Harvard University. He specializes in the politics of international monetary and financial relations. Frieden is the author of Currency Politics: The Political Economy of Exchange Rate Politics and (with Menzie Chinn) of Lost Decades: The Making of America’s Debt Crisis and the Long Recovery. His previous books include Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century; Debt, Development, and Democracy: Modern Political Economy and Latin America, 1965–1985; and Banking on the World: The Politics of American International Finance. He is also the co-author or co-editor of many other books on related topics. His articles on the politics of international economic issues have appeared in a wide variety of scholarly and general interest publications.

Review:

Here a leading economist and leading political scientist team up to explain in simple, straightforward terms the political economy of the financial crisis. If you have time to read only one book on the crisis, read this. (Barry Eichengreen, University of California Berkeley)

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0393076504
• ISBN 13: 9780393076509
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304