Prestigious newspaper editor George Melloan, who worked for the Wall Street Journal for more than half a century, is no stranger to the wild ups and downs of the American and world economies. Using detailed examples from the Crash of 1929 and from the Carter era, this brilliantly argued book explains how government intervention actually prevents the economy from recovering its natural balance. Unless lawmakers realize the true importance of using supply-side economics in our current crisis, warns Melloan, nothing will save us from a new era of disastrous inflation and widespread global depression.
Citing the importance of historical example, Melloan explains how the world of economics was completely changed in the 1930s under the influence of English economist John Maynard Keynes. His theories advocating government interventionist policies were wholeheartedly adopted as a response to the Great Depression and remained unquestioned until the "supply-side revolution" of 1980, after the stagflation of the 1970s showed the inherent weaknesses of neo-Keynesian economics. By employing what is sometimes called "Reaganomics," President Ronald Reagan and his economic advisers sparked a quarter century of unparalleled prosperity. Unfortunately, as Melloan demonstrates, government policy soon began to revert to Keynesian theories, even though they are widely misunderstood and misapplied.
Now, with the Crash of 2008, our new president and government appear committed to ignoring the lessons of the past. With multibillion-dollar "stimulus packages" becoming the norm, and a multitrillion-dollar national debt that will keep growing so long as present policies are continued, America can look forward to a very grim future indeed.
There is only one solution: we must return to our eroded supply-side principles. In the face of general misunderstanding, Melloan outlines a lucid and detailed explanation of exactly why we are currently sinking so rapidly, how this crisis compares to similar situations in the past, and exactly what must be done to return the United States to the economic vitality it enjoyed not so long ago.
Download and start listening now!
“Heller delivers with relaxed authority…[His] emotional balance helps make this book sound more like a rich economics lesson than a partisan diatribe.”
— AudioFile
“An excellent map for finding a way forward.”
— Wall Street JournalAn excellent map for finding a way forward.
— The Wall Street JournalBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
George Melloan, now retired, was deputy editor, international, of the Wall Street Journal, where he was responsible for the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal Europe, headquartered in Brussels, and the Asian Wall Street Journal, based in Hong Kong. He also wrote a weekly column, “Global View,” that appeared in all three papers. Melloan has won the Gerald Loeb Award for excellence in financial journalism and two Daily Gleaner Awards from the Inter-American Press Association for writings about Central America. He is coauthor of The Carter Economy, a discussion of Jimmy Carter’s policies in the first year of his presidency. He lives with his wife and their three children in Westfield, New Jersey.
Johnny Heller, winner of numerous Earphones and Audie Awards, was named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile magazine in 2019. He has been a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award winner from 2008 through 2013 and he has been named a top voice of 2008 and 2009 and selected as one of the Top 50 Narrators of the Twentieth Century by AudioFile magazine.