Seven Bad Ideas How Mainstream Economists Have Damaged America and the World [Paperback]

From the former economics columnist forHarper’sandThe New York Times,a bold indictment of some of our most accepted mainstream economic theories—why they’re wrong, and how they’ve been harming America and the world.

Ideas have the power to change history. But what happens when they are bad? In a tour de force of economics, history, and analysis, Jeff Madrick shows how theories on austerity, inflation, and efficient markets have become unassailable mantras over recent years, to the detriment of the country as a whole. Working backwards from the Great Recession, Madrick pulls no punches as he reconsiders seven of the greatest false idols of modern economic theory, from Say’s Law to Milton Friedman, illustrating how these ideas have been damaging markets, infrastructure, and individual livelihoods for years. Trenchant, sweeping, and empirical,Seven Bad Ideasresoundingly disrupts the status quo of modern economic theory.

Top Ten Business Books of 2015,Booklist

“Engaging. . . . An important and eloquent voice.” —The New York Review of Books

“If there were an eighth bad idea, it would be ignoring this book.” —Shelf Awareness

“Must-read. . . . Brisk and accessible. . . . Madrick outlines the wrong-headed propositions, fictitious models, shoddy research, and partisan agendas that have made a reexamination of the entire field long overdue.” —Salon

“Jeff Madrick argues that the professional failures since 2008 didn’t come out of the blue but were rooted in decades of intellectual malfeasance. . . . Madrick has clarified my own thinking on the subject. . . . [These] bad ideas are definitely out there, have been expressed by plenty of economists, and have indeed done a lot of harm. . . . Important.” —Paul Krugman,The New York Times

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