Book Review—How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities
How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities
by John Cassidy
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 400 pages
0374173206
Wow, what a book!
The author analyzes our recent economic meltdown in three parts, each well-written, and packed with information.
The first section, with eight chapters, describes what Cassidy terms “utopian economics.” We find a short history of economic thought, not absolutely complete, but leaving little to quibble over. Adam Smith, Leon Walras, Alfred Marshall—they’re all there plus other economists who are not quite so well known. Cassidy describes microeconomics as it is taught in most schools today—the theory of perfect competition. We hear about the impressive mathematical analysis that accompanies all this, but we are spared any detailed mathematical nomenclature. This is very readable.
From there, we move to Part Two, “Reality-Based Economics.” Here we encounter the many economists who have, in one way or another, pointed out small and large inconsistencies in utopian theory. These ideas are NOT new. Some date back to the 19th Century. Many of the ideas have been ignored, neglected, or thought to be unimportant and have not gained the widespread level of understanding they deserve. So, a reader who is not extremely familiar with history of economic thought may find many new and challenging ideas here.
“The Great Crunch” concludes the book. Here we find an account of the late 2008 economic crash, now accompanied by our understanding of how economic thinking contributed to it. We see our country, largely believing and formulating policy as if we are in free-market utopia, when we actually live and buy and sell in reality. Not a pretty picture.
The book is worth the read for anyone wishing to understand The Great Crunch, as well as for anyone interested in the history of economic thought or even the policy debates we continue to hear today.
This is my first encounter with Cassidy’s writing. His research is excellent. I did find his format for notes to be strange, but that does not detract from a GREAT book.
Book Review–To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise
To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise
by Bethany Moreton
Harvard University Press, 372 pages
0674033221
At some point during my childhood, my mother began shopping at a new grocery store in our western Oklahoma town. She told my sister and me not to tell our grandfather that she was shopping there. You see, the new grocery store was a dreaded CHAIN STORE! The owners of the store did not live in our town, and they owned TWO other grocery stores—one of them in Kansas! Many Oklahomans of my grandfather’s generation did not like chain stores! My sister and I pledged our secrecy, and my grandfather suffered no ills (at least not because of my mother’s grocery shopping).
What a difference forty years makes! Now, no self-respecting Oklahoman would do anything other than shop at chain stores (indeed there is hardly anywhere else to acquire necessities). We have one special favorite chain store—Wal-Mart! How did things change so much?
Yale graduate, and University of Georgia professor, Bethany Moreton, attempts to answer this question and does so masterfully.
Her analysis revolves around the culture of the Ozarks, where Wal-Mart began. Her penetrating discussion of the company, the folkways of the Ozarks, the religious faith of the customers and employees, and broad political and economic factors give the reader a sweeping panorama of the past fifty years. “Wal-Mart country” has expanded geographically, indeed to global proportions, taking Scots-Irish folkways and evangelical Christianity with it.
Though most of us in Oklahoma don’t identify immediately with the Ozark culture, there are many similarities between that tradition and our rural, agricultural, oil patch heritage. Indeed, many elements of Ozark culture are common throughout the rural South. These various social norms are part and parcel of Moreton’s writing. Rather than taking a simplistic view that interprets Wal-Mart solely as the product of the Ozarks, Moreton paints a complex picture of interaction with and among various cultural threads. Wal-Mart is influenced by the prevailing culture of Sam Walton’s Bentonville, but in turn, Wal-Mart country has been influenced and unquestionably shaped by the behemoth retailer.
Moreton does not write with a bias for or against Wal-Mart. This is an evenhanded treatment seeking to simply take in the various aspects of an international phenomenon. The book is extensively documented with over 100 pages of footnotes and index. This makes it a little shorter than most non-fiction books. It seems a few ideas could have been better developed, and possibly were summed up a little too quickly in the interest of brevity. Nonetheless, this is a great first book from a young Ph.D. We can expect great things from this lady. Read the book.
Book Review ⎯This Little Kiddy Went to Market: The Corporate Capture of Childhood
This Little Kiddy Went to Market: The Corporate Capture of Childhood
by Sharon Beder, Wendy Varney, and Richard Gosden
Pluto Press , 352 pages
0745329152
Released in May of this year, This Little Kiddy, gives parents some perspective on modern childhood. Oklahomans, and most Americans, will immediately notice the international flavor of the book. The authors are Australian, but rather than focus their analysis strictly on Australia, they spot trends from most English-speaking countries of the world. Beder, who wrote most of the book, has several books to her credit already, and all of them reflect an amazing ability to understand human nature across continents.
Early chapters deal with the ever-more-clever techniques used by advertisers and marketers to entice children. Most parents will recognize the “nag” factor when shopping with kids in tow. Of course, this is old news, but if misery loves company, U.S. parents may appreciate knowing they aren’t alone. Parents all over the English-speaking world share our pain.
Moving past these sad-but-all-too-familiar images, the subject becomes even more ominous. After a chapter on corporate-sponsored “educational” materials supplied to cash-strapped schools, we move to “Turning Schools into Businesses” in Chapter 6. This isn’t just your soft-drink vending machine type of school business, this is an exposé of for-profit schools. The reader learns of strategies employed by education entrepreneurs to undermine public schools, leaving a profitable niche for private schools.
The discussion moves on; we learn of methods used to influence policy for and in public schools. Exactly what do corporations want from public schools? Answer: a product⎯yes, a student is a product. Further, the type of product a corporations wants to “buy” (hire) is a compliant, docile, obedient worker who does not ask many questions! ‘
If you are of a left-wing political persuasion, you might say, “I knew this all along,” while those with more of a right-wing mindset may say, “Baloney/poppycock/balderdash!” The claims in the book are extensively documented (44 pages of footnotes to be exact).
Thus, this book is great food for thought for anyone interested in the next generation in this or any country.