What Would the Great Economists Do? How Twelve Brilliant Minds Would Solve Today’s Biggest Problems

An appealing thought experiment—what if the great economic thinkers of the past took on today’s most intractable problems—supplies the premise for this provocative work from economist Yueh (China’s Growth). Unfortunately, Yueh’s answers are less stirring than the question, principally because her subjects’ work has already been absorbed into mainstream economic thinking. She devotes much of the book to profiles of her “great economists,” among whom she includes Milton Friedman, John Maynard Keynes, Karl Marx, and Adam Smith, and while the compressed biographies are sometimes helpful with understanding their ideas, they more often distract from the book’s exploration of contemporary issues like income inequality and the role of central banks. Elsewhere, Yueh is more on point, as in the chapter on Joan Robinson (an overlooked female economist), who studied why wages do not necessarily rise in economic recoveries. The epilogue addresses the future of globalization and invokes the thoughts of the greats (largely arguments for free trade), but feels tired and less than revelatory, suggesting that the modern world would be better served by looking for the next great economist than by looking to the past. (June)