“I’m (currently) reading a book on American capitalism by the former chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan,” he told ET Now during a light-hearted rapid fire.
We take a closer look at this tome that was shortlisted for the 2018 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award:
- Written by Alan Greenspan, the former chair of the US Federal Reserve, and Adrian Wooldridge, a political editor for The Economist, ‘Capitalism in America’ examines the history of the American political economy – how it grew, changed, surged and stalled.
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The book also explores questions like: Where does innovation come from? How does it spread through a society?
- The opening line itself – “Imagine you are at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, but it’s not 2018; it’s 1620” - gives economic history fans a glimpse of the humble beginnings of the American economy.
- At a time when productivity growth in the United States seems to be plateauing, this book provides a unique insight into the drivers behind the American economy. It explores every chapter in America’s history from the initial threadbare colonies to the role of slavery in the South to Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal and ‘America's violent swings in its openness to global trade.’
- Some of the principal themes that the authors grapple with are innovation, productivity growth and America’s unique tolerance for the effects of creative destruction. “What we argue in this book is that America becomes the world’s greatest economic power because it has an unusual tolerance for creative destruction. It allows creation, but it also allows the destruction, which makes creation easier,” said Wooldridge during an event last year.
- The book also explores questions like: Where does innovation come from? How does it spread through a society? Why do some eras see the fruits of innovation spread more democratically while others see the opposite?
Agencies
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