Alan S. Blinder

An assessment of the U.S. financial crisis and its lessons explores its complex contributing factors while revealing some of its more devastating consequences, outlining potentially divisive solutions that may be necessary for recovery.

The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead

After the Music Stopped

tough-minded economics for a just society

Hard heads, soft hearts

William J. Baumol

Principles And Policy

Economics with Infotrac

Janet Louise Yellen

The performance of the U.S. economy in the 1990s far outstripped expectations. Growth was surprisingly strong, unemployment fell to the lowest level in a generation, and yet inflation remained dormant. Why? And what lessons can we learn from this wonderful episode? Alan S. Blinder and Janet L. Yellen, who participated in these events both at the Federal Reserve Board and in the Clinton administration, have written the first comprehensive analytical history of this important period. They attribute the strong performance during the 1990s to a combination of favorable preconditions, excellent monetary and fiscal policy, and a harvest of good luck-especially the sharp acceleration of productivity after 1995. Drawing on their firsthand experience, marshaling a wide variety of data, and using two large-scale models of the U.S. economy, they analyze the roles of deficit reduction, Federal Reserve policy, and a series of favorable "supply shocks" in bringing about the happy combination of strong growth and low inflation. Contrary to previous conventional wisdom, they conclude that the Fed demonstrated that fine tuning the economy is at least possible-if you have both skill and luck. But to do this job properly, the central bank must place high value on growth. The authors also argue that a policy mix of smaller federal budget deficits (or larger surpluses) and lower interest rates produces superior long-term macroeconomic results.

Macroeconomic Lessons from the 1990s

The Fabulous Decade

A bestselling economist tells us what both politicians and economists must learn to fix America's failing economic policies American economic policy ranks as something between bad and disgraceful. As leading economist Alan S. Blinder argues, a crucial cultural divide separates economic and political civilizations. Economists and politicians often talk -- and act -- at cross purposes: politicians typically seek economists' "advice" only to support preconceived notions, not to learn what economists actually know or believe. Politicians naturally worry about keeping constituents happy and winning elections. Some are devoted to an ideology. Economists sometimes overlook the real human costs of what may seem to be the obviously best policy -- to a calculating machine. In Advice and Dissent, Blinder shows how both sides can shrink the yawning gap between good politics and good economics and encourage the hardheaded but softhearted policies our country so desperately needs.

Why America Suffers When Economics and Politics Collide

Advice and Dissent

Philip Friedman

Essays in Memory of Rafael Lusky

Natural Resources, Uncertainty, and General Equilibrium Systems

Natural Resources, Uncertainty, and General Equilibrium Systems: Essays in Memory of Rafael Lusky compiles a collection of works by economists who had been friends and colleagues of Rafael Lusky, a teacher in the University of Florida and contributor to theoretical resource economics. This book is divided into four sections— natural resources, uncertainty, general equilibrium systems, and policy and applications. In these sections, this text specifically discusses the resource depletion with technological uncertainty and the Rawlsian fairness principle; monopoly, uncertainty, and exploration; and price discrimination under uncertainty. The insurance theoretic aspects of workers' compensation; adverse selection and optimum insurance policies; and difficulty with Keynesian models of aggregate demand are also elaborated. This compilation likewise deliberates the exchange model of bilateral trade; optimal taxes on foreign lending; and extended linear permanent expenditure system (ELPES). This publication is a useful reference for economists and students concerned with theoretical resource economics.

Principles and Policy

Economics

In addition to the open-access, chapter-by-chapter quizzes your students will find at the Book Product Support Website, Baumol Xtra! offers them the opportunity to practice for midterms and finals by taking online quizzes that span multiple chapters. Students have the option to e-mail you their quiz results, including the feedback they have received, so that you can give them the additional help they need.

Baumol Xtra! Eco Prin Policy

These five essays resulted from a Brookings Institution conference in March 1989 on alternative systems of employee compensation. They review both the theory and the empirical evidence on how productivity is affected by alternative methods of compensation, including profit sharing, employee stock ownership plans, and piece rate, both in the United States and other industrialized countries. Hashimoto provides an essay on the Japanese experience. Blinder concludes that, while alternative compensation systems may little affect productivity, the process of employee involvement in company decisions may be important. ISBN 0-8157-1000-3; $28.95; ISBN 0-8157-0999-4 (pbk.): $9.95.

A Look at the Evidence

Paying for Productivity

Although little noticed, the face of central banking has changed significantly over the past ten to fifteen years, says the author of this enlightening book. Alan S. Blinder, a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve System and member of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, shows that the changes, though quiet, have been sufficiently profound to constitute a revolution in central banking. Blinder considers three of the most significant aspects of the revolution. The first is the shift toward transparency: whereas central bankers once believed in secrecy and even mystery, greater openness is now considered a virtue. The second is the transition from monetary policy decisions made by single individuals to decisions made by committees. The third change is a profoundly different attitude toward the markets, from that of stern schoolmarm to one of listener. With keenness and balance, the author examines the origins of these changes and their pros and cons.

Alan S. Blinder

Books

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