Description
Book SynopsisExplaining the causes and impact on working Americans of the most catastrophic economic policy failure since the 1920s.
Trade ReviewBivens succeeds at exposing the 'cracked foundation' of the economy...: falling wages, assaults on unionism, globalization for workers and insulation for elites, the rise of the nonproductive financial sector, and the abandonment of full employment as a policy target. In graph after carefully and simply explained graph, Bivens walks the reader through the historical trajectory of these and other economic developments that have come to define the current situation.
-- Cecilio Morales * America *
In this useful and timely work, Bivens provides an assessment that will clarify for many the widely held view that the current 'great recession' need not have occurred but rather was due to government policy errors. These included minimum wage erosion by inflation; weakening of laws governing unions and collective bargaining; globalization that benefitted the already privileged; and slow growth of wages and income at the middle of the income distribution.... Summing up: Highly recommended.
* Choice *
Table of ContentsForeword by Lawrence MishelI. The Great Recession: The Damage Done and the Rot RevealedII. The Great Recession's Trigger: Housing Bubble Leads to Jobs Crisis
Fallout: The Job Market
Fallout: Broader Measures of Economic Security—Poverty, Health Insurance, and Net WealthIII. The Policy Response to the Great Recession: What Was Done, and Did It Work?
The Dynamics of the Great Recession
Recovery Act Controversies: What Was in It?
Recovery Act Controversies: Did It Work at All?
Recovery Act Controversies: Why Has Consumer and Not Government Spending Led the Recovery? IV. The Great Recession Ended More Than a Year Ago—So, "Mission Accomplished"?
Apathy, Not Overreach
Exchange Rate Policy
Monetary Policy
Fiscal Policy
Clear Economics, Fuzzy Politics V. The Cracked Foundation Revealed by the Great Recession
Falling Minimum Wage
Assault on Workers' Right to Organize
Global Integration for America's Workers and Insulation for Elites
The Rise of Finance
Abandoning Full Employment as a Target
You Get the Economy You Choose
Incomes in the 30 Years before the Great Recession: Growing Slower and Less Equal
Is Everybody Getting Richer but the Rich Are Just Getting Richer Faster?
Why Have Typical Families' Incomes and Overall Economic Growth De-linked?
The Arithmetic of Rising Inequality: Falling Wage Growth for Most American Workers
The Economics of Rising Inequality
Lower Wage Growth Did Not Buy Greater Economic Security or Sustained Progress in Closing Racial Gaps
How Did American Families Cope with Lower Wage Gowth and Rising Insecurity?VI. Where to from Here?Bibliography
About EPI
About the Author
The State of Working America Website
