Promotional Information

How US and IMF policies lavish favors on multinationals and capitalists, while allowing living standards for ordinary people to fall

About the Author

Robert Pollin is Professor of Economics and founding Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Among his many books are The Living Wage (with Stephanie Luce) and the edited volume Transforming the US Financial System (with Gary Dymski and Gerald Epstein). He has worked with the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress and the United Nations Development Program, and was the economic spokesperson for the 1992 presidential campaign of Governor Jerry Brown.

Reviews

A major new book by the eminent US economist Robert Pollin ... does an excellent job of demystifying the true nature of boom and bust in the US and clearly identifying the effects on different sectors of US society as well as on the rest of the world. In addition to this critical assessment, Pollin goes beyond analysis in seriously putting forward alternative economic policies. What is even more important is that he manages to do this in a lucid and highly readable style, which makes the book very approachable for the non-economist.
*Frontline*

I strongly urge you to read Robert Pollin's Contours of Descent.
*The Nation*

This is a book sophisticated enough to be of interest to those with economics training, but written in a comprehensible and popular style, so that without sacrificing rigor it will be accessible to any interested reader.
*Monthly Review*

Pollin is a people's economist who presents complex economic issues in a comprehensible form and helps the reader sift through the class biases of conventional economics.
*Shelterforce*

Robert Pollin has succeeded admirably in debunking the celebratory tone that seemed to have infected most journalists and too many economists during the late 1990s.
*Challenge*

Contours of Descent is lucid economics as if reality matters. Cutting through the myths, hype and diversionary corporate-side indicators, Professor Pollin lays out an agenda to turn around the economy that is increasingly disconnecting from millions of workers and their well-being. A laser-beam exposure of globalization as defined by the World Bank, the IMF, Alan Greenspan and the corporate supremacists.
*Ralph Nader*

Robert Pollin's readable and sharply argued book is an excellent guide to the reality of recent US economic policy and its global implications.
*Andrew Glyn, Oxford University*

Pollin writes with great clarity and a total lack of dogmatism ... Above all, Pollin is committed and he does not pull his policy punches.
*Journal of Australian Political Economy*

This insightful book dissects the consequences of the neoliberal revolution of the 1990s, and offers valuable lessons for the neophyte and professional economist alike.
*Professor Dani Rodrik, Harvard University*

Professor Pollin is one of the leading heterodox economists in the US. His rigorous and insightful analysis convincingly demonstrates that Clinton and Bush as well as the IMF have each followed fundamentally similar neoliberal economic policies to the detriment of people in the US and the developing world. Importantly, the book also outlines an alternative policy program for building a prosperous US and world economy. It is a 'must read' for those who wish to understand recent developments in the US and the world economy.
*Professor Ajiit Singh, Cambridge University*

Contours of Descent does a great job in making current U.S. and global economic issues accessible to the average reader. Pollin presents a clear discussion of what he terms 'the Marx Problem,' 'the Keynes Problem,' and 'the Polanyi Problem,' as they apply both in the U.S. under Clinton and Bush, and in the developing countries. Most importantly, the book ends by demonstrating that 'another path is possible'-sketching a workable egalitarian policy agenda in both the U.S. and developing country context, focused on full employment, defending workers rights, and regulating financial markets.
*Professor Lourdes Beneria, Cornell University*