Abstract
I have to say, I was a little daunted after my initial flick through Edward Ashbee's The US Economy Today, which at first appeared crammed with charts, figures and dense terminology, but I need not have worried. This is an excellently presented introduction to the last century of American economic policy and theory, the aim of which is to familiarise readers with its terminology and trends in order that they may better understand the current financial crisis.
Ashbee impresses from the first with a very helpful chapter explaining the concepts of GDP growth and recession, employment, the factors of production and the business cycle. With this grounding, Ashbee moves on to chronicle the prevailing economic paradigms of the twentieth century in the next few chapters. Beginning in an era when government intervention in the economy was minimal, he guides us through the transformations that took place after the Great Depression, the New Deal, the New Economics of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, the malaise of the 1970s, Reaganomics and the boom and disastrous bust of the Clinton and Bush years.
The latter chapters are more thematic than historical, dealing with trade, mobility and inequality. Ashbee is even-handed on such issues as NAFTA and diplomatic when measuring the US economy against its European counterparts.
While there is nothing startlingly original in Ashbee's contribution, it will no doubt prove popular with students, primarily for its clarity. The Laffer Curve, the Gini Coefficient, monetarism and the causes of the Great Depression and of the current global recession are just a handful of the issues with which Ashbee deals without oversimplification and without baffling the uninitiated reader. His Notes sections are treasure troves of further information which are as attention grabbing as the body of the text. His use of bullet points is a simple but very effective method of structuring his arguments and the charts and figures he employs supplement the text without disturbing the flow of the book.
Despite its focus being the US economy, this is a book that can really instil confidence in those readers whose knowledge of economics in general is limited. I know that I will certainly be consulting Ashbee's book when I need a clear, precise explanation of a difficult issue.