You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
The profession of economics has a lot to answer for. Since the late 1970s, the ideas of influential economists have justified policies that have made the world more prone to economic crisis, remarkably less equal, more polluted, and less secure than it might be. How did ideas and policies that have proved to be such an abject failure come to dominate the economic landscape? By critically examining the work of the most famous economists of the neoliberal period including Alan Greenspan, Milton Friedman, and Robert Lucas, Robert Chernomas and Ian Hudson demonstrate that many of those who rose to prominence did so primarily because of their defense of, and contribution to, rising corporate profits, rather thantheir ability to predict or explain economic events. An important and controversial book, The Profit Doctrine exposes the uses and abuses of mainstream economic canons, identifies those responsible, and reaffirms the primacy of political economy. "
Economics has always been nicknamed the “dismal science,” but today the field seems a little more dismal than usual as governments, social movements, and even students complain that the discipline is failing to make sense of the major economic problems of the day. In Economics in the Twenty-First Century, Robert Chernomas and Ian Hudson demonstrate how today’s top young economists continue to lead the field in the wrong direction. The recent winners of the John Bates Clark medal, economics’s “baby Nobel,” have won that award for studying important issues such as economic development, income inequality, crime, and health. Examining their research, Chernomas and Hudson show that this work focuses on individual choice, ignores the systematic role of power in the economic system, and leads to solutions that are of limited effectiveness at best and harmful at worst. An accessible summary of the latest debates in economics, Economics in the Twenty-First Century takes on what is missing from mainstream economics, why it matters, and how the discipline can better address the key concerns of our era.
Corporate power is one of the strongest forces shaping our world. More than half of the top 100 economic entities today are private corporations. With their immense size comes commensurate influence, to the point where corporations are able to wreak social and environmental destruction with few serious consequences. Yet, amazingly, this subject is essentially absent from the study of economics. The conservative economic theory that dominates the profession is based on the core belief that as little as possible should interfere with businesses' pursuit of profit. This approach to economics ignores history, politics, poverty, the natural environment, and social class, among other inconvenient realities. Conservative economics would almost be laughable--were it not for the fact that this way of thinking helps prop up the worst excesses of capitalism.
The New York Times is possibly the most influential newspaper in the world. Because of this, it has become the topic of much debate about media bias, with some claiming that it is liberal and others that it is conservative. The Gatekeeper argues that this debate is misleading and that the New York Times can more accurately be characterised as supporting the interests of US corporations, which involves both liberal and conservative positions. Through examining the paper's coverage of key issues, including the 2008-2009 economic crisis, The Gatekeeper reframes the debate about the most venerable institution in US journalism.
To Live and Die in America details how the United States has among the worst indicators of health in the industrialized world and at the same time spends significantly more on its health care system than any other industrial nation. Robert Chernomas and Ian Hudson explain this contradictory phenomenon as the product of the unique brand of capitalism that has developed in the US. It is this particular form of capitalism that created both the social and economic conditions that largely influence health outcomes and the inefficient, unpopular and inaccessible health care system that is incapable of dealing with them. The authors argue that improving health in America requires a change in the conditions in which people live and work as well as a restructured health care system.
The central claim of this book is that the dichotomy between economic dependence and economic independence is completely inadequate for describing the political challenges faced by contemporary capitalist welfare states. The simplistic contrast between markets and states as sources of income renders invisible the relations of dependence established in our basic economic institutions such as the family, property, and money. This book is a work of political theory that attacks narrow conceptions of dependence and identifies distinct senses of dependence that might allow political communities to make clearer decisions about the justice of our economic institutions and practices. Inheritance, for example, is as much a form of dependence as support by a welfare state, but these are never compared in debates about economic justice. This book begins the work of comparing forms of economic dependence, and argues that economic dependence is always an issue of both vulnerability and parasitism. It builds bridges between political theory and social science, and is of relevance to those concerned with social and economic justice in and beyond contemporary capitalist welfare states.
A consensus-shattering account of automation technologies and their effect on workplaces and the labor market In this consensus-shattering account of automation technologies, Aaron Benanav investigates the economic trends that will shape our working lives far into the future. Silicon Valley titans, politicians, techno-futurists, and social critics have united in arguing that we are on the cusp of an era of rapid technological automation, heralding the end of work as we know it. But does the muchdiscussed “rise of the robots” really explain the long-term decline in the demand for labor? Automation and the Future of Work uncovers the deep weaknesses of twenty-first-century capitalism and the reasons why the engine of economic growth keeps stalling. Equally important, Benanav goes on to salvage from automation discourse its utopian content: the positive vision of a world without work. What social movements, he asks, are required to propel us into post-scarcity if technological innovation alone can’t deliver it? In response to calls for a permanent universal basic income that would maintain a growing army of redundant workers, he offers a groundbreaking counterproposal.
"It is more than a matter of curiosity that so many chronic pain suffers experience such a high level of frustration with the medical profession." Building on his 1992 The Social Context of Chronic Pain Suffers, Roy (U. of Manitoba, Winnipeg) exhorts doctors to pay attention to patients as more than carriers of symptoms; consider social environment issues such as family and job loss; and treat them in ways that minimize the typical sense of powerlessness. The final chapter traces a patient's painful journey through the medical system. c. Book News Inc.
Gentrifier opens up a new conversation about gentrification, one that goes beyond the statistics and the clichés, and examines different sides of a controversial, deeply personal issue. In this lively yet rigorous book, John Joe Schlichtman, Jason Patch, and Marc Lamont Hill take a close look at the socioeconomic factors and individual decisions behind gentrification and their implications for the displacement of low-income residents. Drawing on a variety of perspectives, the authors present interviews, case studies, and analysis in the context of recent scholarship in such areas as urban sociology, geography, planning, and public policy. As well, they share accounts of their first-hand experience as academics, parents, and spouses living in New York City, San Diego, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Providence. With unique insight and rare candour, Gentrifier challenges readers' current understandings of gentrification and their own roles within their neighborhoods. A foreword by Peter Marcuse opens the volume.
Amidst a capitalist crisis that has upturned mainstream orthodoxies, this title underscores the importance of historical and materialist understandings of capitalist economies. It exposes the limitations of neoclassical economics' endogenous growth theory and how it, in fact, gropes for understandings well established within Marxism.