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The Past and Future of American Affluence
Random House
November 2008
On Sale: November 11, 2008
336 pages
ISBN: 0375505482
EAN: 9780375505485
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
It’s a giant gap in our history. The Great Inflation, argues
award-winning columnist Robert J. Samuelson in this
provocative book, was the worst domestic policy blunder of
the postwar era and played a crucial role in transforming
American politics, economy, and everyday life–and yet its
story is hardly remembered or appreciated. In these
uncertain economic times, it is more imperative than ever
that we understand what happened in the 1960s and 1970s,
lest we be doomed to repeat our mistakes. From 1960 to 1979, inflation rose from barely more than 1
percent to nearly 14 percent. It was the greatest peacetime
inflationary spike in this nation’s history, and it had
massive repercussions in every area of our lives. The direct
consequences included Ronald Reagan’s election to the
presidency in 1980, stagnation in living standards, and a
growing belief–both in America and abroad–that the
great-power status of the United States was ending. The
Great Inflation and Its Aftermath traces the origins and
rise of double-digit inflation and its fall in the brutal
1981-82 recession, engineered by the Federal Reserve under
then-chairman Paul Volcker and with the staunch backing of
Reagan. But that is only half the story. The end of high inflation
triggered economic and social changes that are still with
us. The stock market and housing booms were both direct
outcomes; American business became more productive–and also
much less protective of workers; and globalization was
encouraged. We cannot understand today’s world, Samuelson contends,
without understanding the Great Inflation and its aftermath.
Nor can we prepare for the future unless we heed its
lessons. This incisive and enlightening book will stand as
the authoritative account of a watershed event of our times.
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