Guide to U.S. Economic Policy

Guide to U.S. Economic Policy shows students and researchers how issues and actions are translated into public policies for resolving economic problems (like the Great Recession) or managing economic conflict (like the left-right ideological split over the role of government regulation in markets). Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the guide highlights decision-making cycles requiring the cooperation of government, business, and an informed citizenry to achieve a comprehensive approach to a successful, growth-oriented economic policy. Through 30 topical, operational, and relational essays, the book addresses the development of U.S. economic policies from the colonial period to today; the federal agencies and public and private organizations that influence and administer economic policies; the challenges of balancing economic development with environmental and social goals; and the role of the U.S. in international organizations such as the IMF and WTO.

Key Features:

• 30 essays by experts in the field investigate the fundamental economic, political, social, and process initiatives that drive policy decisions affecting the nation’s economic stability and success.
• Essential themes traced throughout the chapters include scarcity, wealth creation, theories of economic growth and macroeconomic management, controlling inflation and unemployment, poverty, the role of government agencies and regulations to police markets, Congress vs. the president, investment policies, economic indicators, the balance of trade, and the immediate and long-term costs associated with economic policy alternatives.
• A glossary of key economic terms and events, a summary of bureaus and agencies charged with economic policy decisions, a master bibliography, and a thorough index appear at the back of the book.

Robert E. Wright is the Nef Family Chair of Political Economy and founding director of the Thomas Willing Institute for the Study of Financial Markets, Institutions, and Regulations at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Previously, Dr. Wright taught at New York University’s Stern School of Business, the University of Virginia, Temple University, and elsewhere. He teaches courses on the history of capitalism, Native American economic history, and HBO’s The Wire, among other topics.
He is the author or co-author of fifteen books, including Wealth of Nations Rediscovered (2002); First Wall Street (2005);Financial Founding Fathers (2006); One Nation Under Debt (2008); Fubarnomics (2010); and Corporation Nation (2014). He is currently working on books about entrepreneurship in South Dakota and America’s fifty largest bank holding companies.
Dr. Wright is a board member of Historians Against Slavery, an NGO dedicated to using historical insights to help reduce the number of coerced laborers worldwide. He is also the editor of Cambridge University Press’s series Slavery Since Emancipation and was the founding editor of Pickering and Chatto’s Financial History monograph series. He is a member of the editorial board of Financial History, the magazine of the Museum of American Finance in New York.

Thomas W. Zeiler is professor of history and director of the Program on International Affairs at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Dr. Zeiler is also the former chair of the Department of History. Having conducted extensive research on the international economy, U.S. foreign economic policy, and globalization, he has published Free Trade, Free World: America and the Advent of GATT (1998); Globalization and the American Century (2003), with co-editor Alfred Eckes; and Guide to U.S. Foreign Policy: A Diplomatic History (2012), with co-editor Robert J. McMahon.
Dr. Zeiler is currently doing research on free markets, free trade, and globalization. He has held Fulbright lecture awards to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Tokyo, Japan. He served as the president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) in 2012 and, from 2010 to 2014, as editor of Diplomatic History, the journal of record in the field of U.S. foreign relations. He also serves on the Historical Advisory Committee on Documentation at the U.S. Department of State.