ECONOMICS IN AMERICA: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality, reviewed

We review this interesting semi-memoir by Angus Deaton the Nobel Prize winner . See more about ECONOMICS IN AMERICA: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality here. Published October 3rd.

From the Nobel Prize–winning economist and New York Times bestselling coauthor of Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, candid reflections on the economist’s craft

ECONOMICS IN AMERICA: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality, reviewed

We read and reviewed the author’s previous book about Deaths of Despair, which did well in the FT Business Book of the Year Awards. Therefore we were pleased to see that he won the Nobel Prize for Economics and that he also then wrote this more reflective and meditative book. In some ways it would be good if all economists wrote a book like this later on in their career, where they reflect on their trade and experiences over a multidecade perspective.

With this book in particular it is particularly sensitive to the crosswinds of politicisation that have ravaged US politics and economic decision making. So much has now become ideologically driven that it can be a challenge to deliver any data driven policy making when there are clear political agendas at play.

Deaton’s book narrates and reflects on many interesting, and non obvious examples of these trends playing out. With the last seven years in particular, with the deintellectualisation of US politics since the entrance of Trump to policy making. It has been impossible to ignore this and Deaton wrestles with these challenges in particular.

With publishing deadlines you must conclude that the final draft was concluded at least a few months ago, so, as, we read this, we did wonder what Deaton’s thoughts must be around the recent progression of legal jeopardy around Trumps so called business empire. This is relevant, as this was supposed to be the demonstration of the value of having a ‘successful’ businessman in the White House. While at the same time seeing the downgrading of economists within the hierarchy of decision making at a political level.

This book does manage to weave the personal, and the professional to muse on these in trends and challenges in a thought provoking and interesting way. Well done on Deaton for winning the Nobel Prize, and also for creating a non-academic book that is well worth reading.

More about the book

Deaton writes a breezily accessible to non-economists, frequently humorous, Tocquevillian style series of letters about America, from his own immigrant experience over the past 40 years. Come for the wisdom and expertise, the point of view holding America up to itself; stay for the Scottish wit.

When economist Angus Deaton immigrated to the United States from Britain in the early 1980s, he was awed by America’s strengths and shocked by the extraordinary gaps he witnessed between people. Economics in America explains in clear terms how the field of economics addresses the most pressing issues of our time—from poverty, retirement, and the minimum wage to the ravages of the nation’s uniquely disastrous health care system—and narrates Deaton’s account of his experiences as a naturalized US citizen and academic economist.

Deaton is witty and pulls no punches. In this incisive, candid, and funny book, he describes the everyday lives of working economists, recounting the triumphs as well as the disasters, and tells the inside story of the Nobel Prize in economics and the journey that led him to Stockholm to receive one.

He discusses the ongoing tensions between economics and politics—and the extent to which economics has any content beyond the political prejudices of economists—and reflects on whether economists bear at least some responsibility for the growing despair and rising populism in America.

Blending rare personal insights with illuminating perspectives on the social challenges that confront us today, Deaton offers a disarmingly frank critique of his own profession while shining a light on his adopted country’s policy accomplishments and failures.

Angus Deaton, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in economics, is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus and Senior Scholar at Princeton University. He is the author (with Anne Case) of the New York Times bestselling book Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism (Princeton).

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