Promotional Information

After decades of pervasive influence over government policy, economists have done much to create the world in which we live. And yet, how well do they actually understand human behaviour? As the Western world turns against 'experts', has their time come to an end?

About the Author

Binyamin Appelbaum is a Washington correspondent for the New York Times, where he covers the Federal Reserve and other aspects of economic policy. Before joining the Times in 2010, he was a reporter at the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the Charlotte Observer, where he was part of a team of reporters nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for coverage of the subprime-mortgage crisis.

Reviews

Lively and entertaining . . . The Economists' Hour is a reminder of the power of ideas to shape the course of history.
*New Yorker*

The New York Times financial writer maps the advance of economists-from the Kennedy administration onward-out of the academy and into government, elevating free markets in the sausage-making of public policy and sparking the inequity that plagues us today.
*O Magazine*

An entertaining and well-written look at how market-oriented ideas rose from the academy and transformed nations.
*Tyler Cowen*

Writing in accessible language of thorny fiscal matters, the author ventures into oddly fascinating corners of recent economic history . . . Anyone who wonders why government officials still take the Laffer curve seriously need go no further than this lucid book.
*Kirkus*

Binyamin Appelbaum has written a powerful must-read for all those interested in reinvigorating the credibility of economics, especially in policymaking circles.
*Mohamed A. El-Erian*

The wider story of the market-centric worldview provides the meat of Appelbaum’s narrative . . . The fact that such sophisticated people presided over a dangerous build-up in financial risk suggests that something larger was at work than a naive faith in markets. Appelbaum’s strength is that he generally acknowledges these complexities.
*Atlantic*

This thoroughly researched, comprehensive, and critical account of the economic philosophies that have reigned for the past half century powerfully indicts them.
*Publisher Weekly (starred)*