The Misunderstood Economy: What Counts and How to Count It - Softcover

Eisner, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0875846424 ISBN 13: 9780875846422

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press, 1995

Synopsis

Everybody talks about the economy. Everybody has complaints or recommendations. But often, nobody knows what they're talking about. So asserts Eisner in this authoritative analysis of the real and imagined ills of the U.S. economy. In clear, easy-to-understand language, this book explains how economic and social progress are and should be measured, challenging widespread misconceptions about debt and deficit, government spending and taxes, unemployment and inflation, foreign investment and international trade. Eisner argues that government accounting is fundamentally flawed since it fails to distinguish between current and capital expenditures, the way every business firm does. Not only is the deficit--when properly measured--not as large as we think, but government spending is in fact not high enough. Indeed, Eisner claims that we are starving this public investment, which is essential for improving our productivity--and our competitiveness--now and in the next century.

About this title

About the Author

Since 1984, Harvard Business School Press has been dedicated to publishing the most contemporary management thinking, written by authors and practitioners who are leading the way. Whether readers are seeking big-picture strategic thinking or tactical problem solving, advice in managing global corporations or for developing personal careers, HBS Press helps fuel the fire of innovative thought. HBS Press has earned a reputation as the springboard of thought for both established and emerging business leaders.

From Kirkus Reviews

Best known for maverick views on federal deficits and the national debt, Eisner (Economics/Northwestern Unviersity; How Real is the Federal Deficit?, not reviewed) makes his signature subjects a centerpiece of this contrarian and somewhat unfashionable audit of the domestic economy. While Eisner stops well short of claiming that budget shortfalls don't matter, he does argue that government figures overstate the case, inter alia, by failing to take economic growth and investment (in education, infrastructure, etc.) into account. Nor, the author complains, do they distinguish between operating outlays and capital expenditures. He goes on to point out that deficit abatement is not an end in itself; the government's principal objective is--or should be--to improve the well-being of the American people. To further his point, Eisner weighs widely used measures of the US economy and finds them wanting. Starting with GNP, he cautions that it's necessary to look beyond official data to get an accurate picture of activities not included in market transactions, e.g., housework, research, and the volunteer services provided nonprofit institutions like museums, schools, and churches. He also discusses investment's links to savings, the realities of America's putatively reprehensible status as a debtor nation, foreign-trade balances, the considerable gains that can accrue from reducing unemployment below its so-called natural rate (above which, many other economists believe, inflation is inevitable), monetary policy, the effect of tax increases, the issue of whether government spending is high enough, and why prosperity (or the lack thereof) could have more to do with the country's capacity to care for the elderly than the condition of Social Security trust funds. An informed and informative guide to the US economy's strengths and weaknesses for those perplexed or offended by the major media's invariably shallow, frequently mistaken interpretations. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0875846424
• ISBN 13: 9780875846422
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 240