cover image Economic Principles: The Masters and Mavericks of Modern Economics

Economic Principles: The Masters and Mavericks of Modern Economics

David Warsh. Free Press, $29.95 (525pp) ISBN 978-0-02-933996-1

This colleciton of more than 150 of Warsh's columns for the Boston Globe, culled from the past decade, steers readers through the thickets of contemporary economics. A middle-of-the-road pundit of often unpredictable views, he predicts that president-elect Clinton will abandon his strongly liberal economic advisers and move toward the center. Although Warsh argues that the U.S. is still considerably ahead of Japan and Europe in terms of citizens' command of goods and services, he draws a stinging comparison between Germany's excellent health-care system and crisis-ridden American health care. Along with profiles of Keynes, Marx, Emerson (``philosopher par excellence of American business'') and Paul Samuelson, he spotlights a younger generation of economists, such as supply-sider Robert Mundell, antitrust consultant Franklin Fisher and Martin Feldstein, opponent of big budget deficits. Elsewhere Warsh debunks academic sociology, defends the Harvard Business School against its critics and dwells on junk bonds, merger mania, Jane Jacobs, Robert Reich, Benjamin DeMott and Robert Nozick. (Mar.)