From Financial Crisis to Stagnation: The Destruction of Shared Prosperity and the Role of Economics [Hardcover]

Advance praise: 'Thomas Palley has provided a penetrating analysis of the Great Recession, the weakness of the policy response, and the role of economic ideas in both. If we are to avoid the Great Stagnation - and build a more equitable and sustainable economic future - economists and policy makers must fundamentally change the way they think about economics and politics. Mr Palley points the way.' Ron Blackwell, Chief Economist, AFL-CIO

'Thomas Palley's carefully argued study combines an acute critique of conventional economic thinking with thoughtful and stimulating proposals to fix America's broken economic policies.' Thomas Ferguson, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Senior Fellow, Roosevelt Institute

'In the depths of the Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes wrote that 'nothing is required, and nothing will avail, except a little clear thinking.' Thomas Palley here renews that message for our time.' James K. Galbraith, author of Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis

'This is an outstanding book: clear, concise, and comprehensive. It shows that the economic crisis is the result of economic policies derived from flawed ideas and flawed ideologies. Read it and recommend it to your friends. It provides a map to overcome the great stagnation and to return to shared prosperity.' José Antonio Ocampo, Columbia University, Former UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and former Finance Minister of Colombia

'In this perspicacious and persuasive book, Tom Palley shows how conventional economic thinking led ultimately to the disaster of the Great Recession and how it is now threatening to culminate in the Great Stagnation. His thoughts on how to avoid that and how to recover are compelling and important.' Clyde Prestowitz, President, Economic Strategy Institute

This book offers a novel explanation of the financial crisis and Great Recession that emphasizes the destruction of shared prosperity over the past thirty years. This contrasts with "black swan" styled explanations that emphasize unexpected financial shocks and speculation. The book explains why the economy is now confronted with stagnation rather than the quick recovery predicted by other accounts.

Thomas Palley is an economist living in Washington, DC. He is currently an Associate of the Economic Growth Program of the New America Foundation in Washington, DC. He was formerly Chief Economist with the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Prior to joining the Commission he served as Director of the Open Society Institute's Globalization Reform Project and as Assistant Director of Public Policy at the AFL-CIO. Dr Palley is the author of Plenty of Nothing: The Downsizing of the American Dream and the Case for Structural Keynesianism (1993) and Post Keynesian Economics (1996). He has published in numerous academic journals and written for The Atlantic Monthly, American Prospect and Nation magazines. His numerous op-eds are posted on his website www.thomaspalley.com. He holds a BA from Oxford University, and an MA in International Relations and PhD in Economics from Yale University.