How the economic crisis of the 1970s transformed the course of global history
Marc Levinson is an economist, historian and journalist who writes for publications including the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Foreign Affairs. He was previously Senior Fellow for International Business at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Finance and Economics Editor at The Economist. His books include The Box, which was shortlisted for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, and The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America, which the Wall Street Journal named one of the best business books of 2011. Levinson holds a master's degree from Princeton University and a doctorate from the City University of New York.
A smoothly written account of the U.S. and the world economy during
the 1970s and parts of the 1980s . . . Mr. Levinson is a smart
enough author not to be tempted into some breathless mono-causal
account of either the earlier “boom” or the later slowdown.
*Wall Street Journal*
An efficiently presented chronology of the global economy since the
end of World War II . . . Weaving together data and narrative,
[Levinson] shows how productivity growth foundered and the irritant
of inflation appeared and would not leave.
*strategy+business*
Provocative . . . Levinson reminds us how mesmerizing the
post-World War II boom was.
*Washington Post*
A valuable antidote to all passionately held economic
ideologies.
*Times Literary Supplement*
Levinson, an economist and ex-journalist . . . has the virtues of
both — an eye for detail and an understanding of the broader
picture.
*Washington Post*
Levinson’s account of this vexed era is lucid, well-paced, and
entwined with vivid sketches of economists, central bankers, and
politicians who failed to restore the pre-1973 good times. He also
succeeds at translating complex economic issues into understandable
terms for lay readers. Levinson’s admirably evenhanded treatment of
recent economic history steers clear of dogmas on both left and
right to explore knottier truths.
*Publishers Weekly*
In An Extraordinary Time, economist and journalist Marc Levinson
says the good times are over for good, or at least for the
foreseeable future . . . Levinson holds a doctorate in economics,
but he has a journalist’s appreciation for the power of
on-the-ground observation.
*Bloomberg Businessweek*
Helpful, clear, and highly-readable.
*Fast Company*
Marc Levinson provides a well written narrative of the descent from
the golden age into what has become the new ordinary . . . [He
offers] useful and balanced treatments of privatization, of job
growth under Reagan and Clinton, of monetary experiments, and an
excellent discussion of the barely avoided financial crisis of the
early 1980s, which resulted from private sector bank loans to
sovereigns in the developing world. If you are old enough to have
lived through the golden age and the subsequent slowdown this will
to some extent be a trip down memory lane. If you are younger, the
book provides a welcome introduction to very important chapters in
twentieth century economic history.
*EH*
[Levinson’s] view is absolutely worth heeding in these days of
unprecedented worldwide financial experimentation . . . A cogently
argued account that lays bare the similarities and differences
between the world today and earlier theoretical shortcomings.
*Kirkus Reviews*
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