The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath: The Past and Future of American Affluence

Remember the great inflation of the 1960s and 1970s? Most predict it coming again due to U.S. hyper spending. This book examines the causes and cures.

Samuelson--a Newsweek columnist who is not related to the Nobel Prize winning economist, but to whom I give extra respect because he has the same last name--reviews the last 50 years of the U.S. economy, with the pivotal moment being the runaway inflation of the 1970s. Before the crisis we had a managed market economy that promised stability and security for firms, employers and...more

Samuelson--a Newsweek columnist who is not related to the Nobel Prize winning economist, but to whom I give extra respect because he has the same last name--reviews the last 50 years of the U.S. economy, with the pivotal moment being the runaway inflation of the 1970s. Before the crisis we had a managed market economy that promised stability and security for firms, employers and consumers alike... but eventually overpromised resulting in inflation which threw everything into a mess. Inflation was wrung out of the economy by the Federal Reserve Board under the leadership of Paul Volcker--and he gives special props to President Ronald Reagan for having Volcker's political back. Since then we've had a rollicking free market in which the economy grows but so does inequality and insecurity. Samuelson is perhaps overly sanguine about contemporary economic problems, and concludes by warning against overreaching when trying to improve health care, combat global warming, regulate banks &c. (and thus bringing back the bad old days of the 70s).   hide