How the Economy Works: Confidence, Crashes, and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

Farmer, professor and chair of the economics department at UCLA, offers a detailed explanation of macroeconomics, showing how unemployment, inflation, and interest rates are connected and how they are influenced by government monetary and fiscal policy. Attempting to speak to the layperson as well as the academic (with mixed results; Farmer's real audience might be the latter), he wades into the difference between classical and Keynesian economics and shows how they have influenced recent policy debates. He shows how central banks influence individual lives, why unemployment persists, and why the stock market matters to everyone. Farmer also ponders if there will be another Great Depression and puts forth a solution for solving and preventing financial crises. Along the way, he provides an abbreviated history of economic thought from Revolutionary days to the present. Readers with a serious interest in this subject will find this timely book informative, but those looking for a gentler introduction will need to look elsewhere. (Apr.)