The Ultimate Field Guide to the U. S. Economy : A Compact and Irreverent Guide to Economic Life in America

The Ultimate Field Guide to the U.S. Economy is the latest version of "the best and . . . least solemn guide to the dismal science you are likely soon to encounter" (John Kenneth Galbraith), revised and expanded with the most recent data. The book brings key policy issues to life, reflecting the collective wit and wisdom of the best economic literacy activists in the country. The Ultimate Field Guide tells you what you need to know about owners, workers, welfare and education, government spending, health, environment, macroeconomics, and the global economy. New charts on the increasing inequality of income and the deterioration of the natural environment point to problems facing the twenty-first century. Lively illustrations and wry cartoons make this book easy to read and hard to put down.

Nancy Folbre, a MacArthur Fellow, is professor emerita of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is the the author of The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values and Saving State U: Why We Must Fix Public Higher Education; a co-author, with Jonathan Teller-Elsberg, James Heintz, and the Center for Popular Economics, of Field Guide to the U.S. Economy; and a co-author, with Randy Albelda, of The War on the Poor: A Defense Manual, all published by The New Press. Her academic books include For Love and Money: Care Provision in the U.S. and Greed, Lust, and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas. She is a regular contributor to the New York Times's Economix blog.