THE ECONOMISTS' HOUR False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society

The influence of economists has increased steadily over the last 50 years, and the author, ably aided by narrator Dan Bittner, provides a lively history of how their policies have brought enormous wealth--to the few. In a chronological approach, the audiobook demonstrates that cycles of deregulation and lower taxes routinely led to massive business defaults and market plunges. Bittner is adept at conveying the author's outrage and, often, his biting humor: Two politicians who went into private banking immediately after backing deregulation were "fortunate that espousing the prevailing ideology would be an express lane to personal enrichment." Bittner's voice is modulated so that the complex theories of influential players like Milton Friedman, Arthur Laffer, and Larry Summers seem digestible, even if their arrogance is not. L.W.S. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2019]