Buy It: The Trouble with Talking Nonsense about the Economy

Strategic communications consultant Shenker-Osoria's first book considers the word "economy" and the metaphors we use to illustrate it. Conservatives, for instance, view the economy as a "moral enforcer": "the individual is clearly to blame for what befalls her." Other people will allude to it in terms of health, water, or motion (think of sick economies, trickle-down theory and downward spiral). The author has very good points about how conservatives and progressives present their plans, and lack thereof, to deal with the present crisis. We should not speak in abstractions such as "costs grew" and "paychecks shrank." Rather, Shenker-Osoria exhorts, we should speak of CEOs, conservative politicians and lobbyists attacking labor unions and suppressing wages; we should talk less about hurting the economy and more about how the economy might hurt people. Without doubt, this book is written from the liberal or progressive viewpoint (though liberals economists like Paul Krugman take their knocks) and, while Shenker-Osorio is not an economist, her view of the rhetoric we suffer through is sharp and to the point in saying that we need to define what the economy is, how it works and what it can do for us. If someone can deliver that, we might have a solution%E2%80%94that is, if anyone will listen. Agent: Max Brockman, Brockman Inc. (Sept.)