Synopsis
When the financial crisis and Great Recession hit in 2008-09, I was shocked, confused and disturbed by what had happened. Making matters worse, the response of the economics profession seemed much like a religious cult: high priests speaking in strange jargon shrouded in obscure mathematical formulas that were incomprehensible to all but the insiders. Much of their economic analysis seemed to be merely political talking points that could not diagnose problems, predict the future or provide practical solutions. But after reading carefully The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money by John M. Keynes, I found economic analysis to be simple and obvious. What had happened during the Great Recession, 2008-09, and what would happen during the recovery to jobs and economic growth became clear and predictable. What needed to be done in order to reach full employment and what needed to be avoided to prevent another economic crisis was simple and obvious. In this book, all of the myths, superstitions and utopias about "free" markets, the "invisible hand" and gold money are debunked. All of the correct policies are examined and discussed so that the reader can easily understand any discussion about economic policy without confusion about federal budget deficits, our national debt and the history of economic policies, both right and wrong.
About the Author
I have studied very carefully Keynes' economic theories for several years. I have debated them and a wide variety of economic topics regarding the "dismal science" on Princeton University professor Paul Krugman's Conscience of a Liberal blog at the New York Times where my comments are often the top pick of readers. I have learned a great deal from Prof. Krugman - almost as though I had an economics course at Princeton- because he is a great teacher. I greatly admire him and numerous other "Keynesian" economists in academia and the business world. I am lawyer by profession but I am an economist by necessity, like everyone else. As a lawyer I do have some advantages since lawyers are highly trained in the nature of evidence, i.e., they have strong BS detectors. A principal role of lawyers is sorting out fact from fiction, and economics is a field plagued with much fiction and many irrelevant facts. Further, lawyers are trained at not only understanding what is relevant and probative of the truth, but also at establishing standards of proof. Another talent of lawyers is reading comprehension of very difficult texts in order to make sense of complex concepts. In economics, complexity seems to be the norm along with dogma masquerading as theory which presents daunting challenges of comprehension to nearly everyone. Finally, lawyers must be able to explain to laymen what these complex concepts mean and how they relate to the facts. I have been doing just that throughout my 40-year legal career and that is my goal in writing this book - to enable everyone to understand economics and participate intelligently in decisions that affect everyone.
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