The End of Normal Lib/E: The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth

The years since the Great Crisis of 2008 have seen slow growth, high unemployment, falling home values, chronic deficits, a deepening disaster in Europe-and a stale argument between two false solutions, "austerity" on one side and "stimulus" on the other. Both sides and practically all analyses of the crisis so far take for granted that the economic growth from the early 1950s until 2000-interrupted only by the troubled 1970s-represented a normal performance. From this perspective the crisis was an interruption, caused by bad policy or bad people, and full recovery is to be expected if the cause is corrected. The End of Normal challenges this view. Placing the crisis in perspective, Galbraith argues that the 1970s already ended the age of easy growth. The 1980s and 1990s saw only uneven growth, with rising inequality within and between countries. And the 2000s saw the end even of that-despite frantic efforts to keep growth going with tax cuts, war spending, and financial deregulation. When the crisis finally came, stimulus and automatic stabilization were able to place a floor under economic collapse. But they are not able to bring about a return to high growth and full employment. Today, four factors impede a return to normal. They are the rising costs of real resources, the now-evident futility of military power, the labor-saving consequences of the digital revolution, and the breakdown of law and ethics in the financial sector. The Great Crisis should be seen as a turning point, a barometer of the rise of unstable economic conditions, which should be regarded as the new normal. Policies and institutions going forward should be designed, above all, modestly, to cope with this fact, maintaining conditions for a good life in difficult times.

About the Author :
James K. Galbraith holds the Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr., Chair in Government/Business Relations at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds degrees from Harvard and Yale. He studied economics as a Marshall scholar at King's College, Cambridge, and then served on the staff of the US Congress, including as executive director of the Joint Economic Committee. He directs the University of Texas Inequality Project, an informal research group at the LBJ School, is a senior scholar of the Levy Economics Institute, and is chair of Economists for Peace and Security, a global professional association. L. J. Ganser is a multiple Audie Award-winning narrator with over six hundred titles recorded to date. Prized for versatility, his work ranges from preschool books to crime noir thrillers, from astronomical adventures in both science and science fiction, to Arctic Circle high school basketball stories. He lives in New York City with his family and dog, Mars.

Review :

"[M]agisterial."

"Forceful prose and admittedly provocative suggestions...Students of economics will enjoy the robust, fearless rebuke he delivers to some of the discipline's giants...A clear-eyed...analysis of the new normal...for the twenty-first century."

"Galbraith puts his pessimism into an engaging, plausible frame. His contentions deserve the attention of all economists and serious financial minds across the political spectrum."

"Galbraith's study marks another sharp and suggestive installment in the ongoing effort to determine how and why our economic and political leaders have lost their once-confident grasp of sound strategies to promote macroeconomic growth. And to restore a measure of that lost confidence Galbraith lays out a bold intellectual agenda."

"Narrator L. J. Ganser presents the arguments in a clear, straightforward manner. His deep voice is easy to listen to, and his professional tone provides a scholarly feel to the discussion. While Ganser doesn't provide much differentiation in his reading--as the text is mainly a narrative--he clearly enunciates each word and uses pauses at the ends of sentences to break up the narration. Galbraith's text covers a lot of ground, including economics, business, and politics, and Ganser navigates the terminology with ease, creating a cohesive narration."