The battles between right and left are still vibrant. No one economist has t he answer. There is Founding Father with solutions that are bound to work. That’s why there is a sense throughout “Grand Pursuit” of exploration into ideas. There must be some dyanamic balance between free enterprise and government oversight and regulation that could work. We have made a terrible mistake letting a libertarian view of finance dominate government– and cause untold misery. We are behind an Eightball– and in pursuit of answers. I just wish the delightful Ms. Nasar had found them in her elegant marvelous attempt.
So, Nasar has put another historic crisis in perspective for us, and given us history, grand characters instead of screaming tv pundits and the treatment of the debt debacle as if it was a ball game. We need new coaches with wisdom. Bring back Keynes and Schumpeter. Treasury Secretary Geithner is dead wrong that Keynesian principles of spending our way out of the doldrums is dead.
Maybe the tombstone should carry John Kenneth Galbraith’s always ironic ruling that “The experience of nations with well-being is exceedingly brief. Nearly all, throughout history have been very poor.”
Possible discussion topics/questions
1. Do you view this book as a history of economic thought? Why or why not?
2. Which of the individual profiles did you find most
surprising
useful
reflective of current economic conditions
challenging to your own world view
3. What was your take on Nasar's analysis of A Christmas Carol and Dickens
4. What defense might you construct for Beatrice Webb, the queen of the welfare state based upon your reading
5. Which social thinker was absent from the book?
6. Were you surprised at the views of Hayek and Keynes post war?
7. React to the following - Nasar's view of the history of modern economic thought places Schumpeter at the heart of the evolution in economic thinking
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