Customer Reviews

Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Finally - a book about the economy for non-economists! Jared Bernstein's clear and compelling approach to economic mysteries is a breath of fresh air amidst an atmosphere stagnant with jargon and so-called experts convoluting the issues. Crunch takes the spin out of statistics and explains what all those numbers really mean - and how politicians and the media can use (and misuse) them for political purposes.

The book is structured around the author's answers to real questions from real people, which I greatly appreciated, having asked many of those questions myself and never before received a satisfactory answer. Crunch is truly inspirational - not only do we all have the ability to understand complex economic principles, but we have the power to see through media hype and make our own decisions about the best policies to get our flailing economy back on track.

Having long ago forgotten my college economics, I've been trying to make sense of the current talk of recession and the various stimulus proposals put out by politicians. Something about the viewpoint expressed by cable news pundits and economic leaders hasn't added up for me, but I couldn't articulate why. Jared Bernstein can and did in his book Crunch. In clear language, he explains how the current squeeze happened and gives the tools for evaluating how various issues--social security, globalization, immigration, and more--affect my pocketbook and what would move us towards, or away from, a fair society.

Went to see Jared Bernstein speak last Saturday and left feeling surprisingly uplifted despite the doom-and-gloom economic analysis. Being a member of the middle class myself, I can fully endorse his description of the "crunch" and I am already a firm believer that wealth distribution is a core problem in our society -so I wasn't expecting more than an endorsement of what I already believe. However, I came away feeling energized by his organizing theme that with knowledge we can "rechannel the power of economic analysis back to the service of those who need it most: the ones in the vise grip of the crunch." He has a great command of the telling economic detail & certainly gave me fact-fodder for a dozen arguments with 'fiscally conservative' relatives - but I found his interweaving of economic and policy ideas to be particularly compelling. Plus, his enthusiasm for his subject and his sincerity are infectious - so I bought the book. It hasn't disappointed. A well-written, easy to digest analysis with compelling arguments on every page. I'm ready to "rechannel the power."

I can finally understand what all the doublespeak in economic circles actually means to me - the average citizen. I also appreciate this author's wit and humor. I feel like I am speaking to a really smart economist buddy, not some snooty know-it-all who makes me feel bad for not knowing the terminology or maths behind it all.

I've always wondered whether I should believe the pundits who insist on "letting the free market take its course," and about why positive economic indicators don't seem to reflect the way people are really living. It never made sense to me. In Crunch, Jared Bernstein explains that the reason accepted economic wisdom doesn't always make sense is that some of it is just plain wrong.

One of the things I loved about this book is that it explains economic principles--as well as the motives of those who try to misrepresent them for their own purposes--in terms a non-economist can understand. I feel like I got an in on the knowledge that the experts had been hoarding for themselves. One of Bernstein's key arguments is that economics is about power, and in sharing this information he gives power back to those of us without PhDs in Economics.

Another thing I really liked is that this book doesn't stop with what's wrong. The author offers insights about and suggestions for how we can change to work through really big economic problems like health care, social security, and globalization.

Usually by the fourth or fifth word out of an economist's mouth, my brain is swimming with confusion from all the meaningless buzzwords and MC Escher-styled twists of logic supposedly bolstering their arguements- and that's exactly the problem Bernstein is addressing in "Crunch." With concise language and refreshingly candid observations, this book cuts out the white noise and gives it to you straight. I learned so much that I just assumed I would never comprehend. A book like this could not possibly be more timely- every day for months now, the headlines are catching up with what a lot of us already knew: the fix is in. Mortgage crisis, rising food & gas costs, soring medical and student loan bills, concentrated wealth, credit collapse, sinking middle class lifestyle and buying power- "Crunch" touches on all of these and a ton more. I recommend this book to anyone looking to get a grip on economic theory and the very real ways it's affecting Americans now.

This is a fantastic book. I love the author's no B.S. approach to the economic troubles that face Americans.

He explains why much of today's economic policy is little more than rationalized greed. In particular how the Federal Reserve Board's hiking of interest rates when labor markets get tight is great for the large investor class, (lowers wages by increasing the number of unemployed in a slowed economy), but hammers working people.

I also enjoyed the explanation of the "education myth", how it is naive to think the 70% of the population that does not attend college should somehow do so and all will be well. The author pointed out this is an easy way for the free market apologists to place the blame for gross inequality on "other people"...if only they would do this, or that, they could live worthwhile lives. Right. The devaluing of others labor and the addiction of American business to cheap labor in general is an age old sport.

Mr. Bernstein seems to enjoy poking fun at the free market zealots and economists who think all will be well for everyone through the magic of the market place. As if greed and injustice do not exist. This "Easter Bunny/Santa Claus" economic approach is ripped by the author and I loved every single line. Finally someone from Washington with the guts to tell it like it is.

This was just a great book. Easy to read, and gets to the heart of real issues impacting average Americans. I loved it.

How many economists have you read or watched on television in recent years that claimed the economy was performing well while you struggled to make ends meet and keep up with the cost of living? Indeed, until recently a happy talk virus had infected a cabal of conservative plutocrats who preached the virtues of limited regulation, market forces and free trade as wages declined and predatory lenders had a party. It seemed we were hearing conservative politicians and their mouthpieces at the Heritage Foundation or Fox news refer to the economy as "the greatest story never told" at every opportunity.

Now that the housing and credit crisis has metastasized, conservative apparatchiks are fighting to minimize government intervention on behalf of regular folks while preserving corporate welfare. They accuse anyone who raises a fuss of waging class warfare. Instead these agents of the status quo prefer we erroneously obsess about Social Security going bust and agree to privatize it for Wall Street's benefit.

Thankfully, renowned economist and the director of the Living Standards Program for the Economic Policy Institute, Jared Bernstein is using his megaphone to fight the madness. With his new book, Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? (And Other Economic Mysteries), Bernstein responds to dozens of questions asked by working Americans that relate to the dollars and cents concerns of real people. Bernstein who often appears as a commentator on CNBC wrote in the preface of his book that,

"I'm tired of being stuck in the studio engaging in rants with Darth Vaders with PhDs. Wouldn't it be more useful to have an open-ended, rant-free dialogue with real, everyday people about their economic questions."

With Crunch, Bernstein effectively validates the daily experience of working people struggling to keep up in a treadmill economy. He also adroitly writes with accessible prose and powerful anecdotes to both educate readers about economic nuances and empower them to influence politics in a more populist direction. Bernstein contends that the rich and powerful have as much influence on who benefits from the economy as the will of the market. He therefore hopes to inspire readers not to cede any more ground to the practitioners of hyper individualism at the expense of the American community.

You can also listen to a podcast interview with Bernstein at the Intrepid Liberal Journal weblog.

My Dad and I have been having this running debate about the direction the world is going. I say better, he says worse, and we never seem to come to any consensus. Crunch, by that rare bird a progressive economist, could be exhibit #1 in the evidence Dad presents to support his case. Bernstein makes the (valid) point that while our country has gotten much richer on the whole over the past two-decades, most folks feel economically "crunched" due to stagnating wages and significant increases in costs for housing, health care, and education. While some things have gotten cheaper due to globalization (like computers), this has not made up for the rise in expenses for the most important things we need, and just to keep up families have had to work longer hours in jobs that are increasingly less secure. Bernstein is an excellent writer, a clear minded economist (one of the first to recognize the growth in low-wage workers and a big source for my dissertation), as well as a player on the Washington policy scene. So is Dad right? I think that Bernstein's time horizons are simply too short, and the growth in living standards, health and longevity over the long run due to increases in technology and the spread of market economics are the really big stories. Sure, we should fight for a progressive agenda (and elect Obama), but Bernstein's observations and policies ideas are not in conflict with recognizing that on a macro sense we would not want to trade life in 2008 for life in 1958.

For people who know little about economics, this is a useful introduction written in clear, simple language. I give it five stars because the author understands the crucial economic question of our time and answers it. The question is: Why after decades of continuous economic growth and productivity advances (before the current crash) did most of us feel so squeezed? Why are we working harder and harder to stay in the same place? And the answer: because the vast bulk of the wealth produced by the surge in productivity has gone to a priviliged few at the top of the tree at the expense of the other 99 percent of society.
When I studied economics, the market was treated as an all-powerful force that eventually meted out a rough justice. Berstein understands that this is not the way the world works. "Power, whether it's based on political clout, wealth, class, race or gender, is also a key determinant of who gets what," he correctely states. "More so than in any recent period, those who hold a privileged position in the economic power hierarchy ... the CEOs and the holders of large capital assets, are able to steer the bulk of growth their way."
I was discussing this with a friend who made the following observation: "To my disgust, the way the economy and our politics have performed in recent decades proves that Marx was right." We have to change that, democratically. It's killing our society.
A key example was the George W. Bush tax cuts that steered the bulk of its gains to the wealthiest one percent. Now Obama is having tremendous difficulty repealing them.
This book was written before the current crisis struck yet the author clearly saw it coming. He includes a useful chapter on financial bubbles including a trenchant critique of Alan Greenspan, and makes the point that when bubbles burst, the damage they do is enormous. That's not just the market functioning. Millions of real people get badly hurt and industries get destroyed.
Other interesting chapters cover immigration, trade, protectionsim, healthcare reform and the environment. On the latter, Berstein makes the obvious but important point that leaving the market to manage our environmental challenges is a recipe for disaster. "Economics always seems to assume that more is better than less: more money, more consumption, more investment, more stuff, more, more, more!" Economists prefer more growth today above a less polluted tomorrow (and politicians obviously agree with them). Classical economics does not admit the possibility that the earth's resources are limited. In classical economics, as supply of something goes down, its price goes up until equilibrium is eventually restored. It sounds logical but it doesn't work. Experience teaches us that fisherman will take the last fish out of the ocean before agreeing to limits on their catch unless they are forced to by law. Once the last fish is gone, no doubt the price of fish will go sky high, but that won't make the fish come back.
In short, this book is a useful corrective against those who still believe in unfettered free markets. It demonstrates that free markets work for the few against the many, lead to speculative bubbles and will kill the planet.