Shock Values: Prices and Inflation in American Democracy

by Carola Binder

Overview

ONE OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2024

How inflation and deflation fears shape American democracy.

Many foundational moments in American economic history—the establishment of paper money, wartime price controls, the rise of the modern Federal Reserve—occurred during financial panics as prices either inflated or deflated sharply. The government’s decisions in these moments, intended to control price fluctuations, have produced both lasting effects and some of the most contentious debates in the nation’s history.

A sweeping history of the United States’ economy and politics, Shock Values reveals how the American state has been shaped by a massive, ever-evolving effort to insulate its economy from the real and perceived dangers of price fluctuations. Carola Binder narrates how the pains of rising and falling prices have brought lasting changes for every generation of Americans. And with each brush with price instability, the United States has been reinvented—not as a more perfect union, but as a reflection of its most recent failures.

Shock Values tells the untold story of prices and price stabilization in the United States. Expansive and enlightening, Binder recounts the interest-group politics, legal battles, and economic ideas that have shaped a nation from the dawn of the republic to the present.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226833101
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	05/22/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	621 KB

About the Author

Carola Binder is associate professor of economics at Haverford College. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and NPR. She tweets at @cconces.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The Colonies and the Revolution

2. Financing the New Nation

3. The Jacksonian Era and the Civil War

4. The Money Question in the Postbellum Era

5. The Federal Reserve Act and World War I

6. Deflation and Stabilization

7. The Great Depression and the New Deal

8. World War II and the Office of Price Administration

9. The Korean War and the Treasury-Fed Accord

10. The Great Inflation

11. The Volcker Disinflation and the Greenspan Standard

12. Inflation Targeting and the Great Recession

13. The Pandemic and the Return of Inflation

14. Looking Back and Looking Ahead

Notes

Index

Editorial Reviews

“In recent decades, economists have made great strides in understanding how monetary and fiscal policy influence inflation. Shock Values dives deeper to show how institutional changes throughout US history have been both a cause and a consequence of an unstable price level. Binder perceptively dissects how public policies meant to control inflation have been driven by a complex mix of special interest politics, ideology, and advances in our understanding of the role of monetary policy.”

— Scott Sumner | author of "The Money Illusion: Market Monetarism, the Great Recession, and the Future of Monetary Policy"

“Debates about the money supply and price level predate the Revolutionary War and have often been at the forefront of US politics. Accessible and a joy to read, Shock Values pulls together economic, political, and intellectual history to tell the remarkable story of three centuries of US inflation (or lack thereof).”

— Joshua Hausman | University of Michigan

"Binder examines the economic destabilization caused by fluctuations in the cost of goods and the effective—and often controversial—remedies the American government has historically used to steady the market, plus their lasting effects. . . .A solid history of American economic policies."

— Library Journal

"[Shock Values] is the new and very useful book by Carola Binder...a very good economic history."

— Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution

"In [Shock Values], Binder looks back at the long history of politics, inflation and how the government has tried to respond, at times through fiscal policy like price controls, at others with monetary policy."

— Marketplace

"Shock Values [is] a timely subject in this inflation-focused presidential election year. Carola Binder expounds on monetary ideas both sound and otherwise. She takes up tariffs, antitrust policy, price control, rent control, the minimum wage and the quest for the will-o’-the-wisp called 'price stability.' Her brisk narrative, starting in colonial times, carries the reader all the way down to the tumultuous present."

— The Wall Street Journal

"Binder argues fluctuations in prices have 'shaped American democracy since its very beginning,' influencing the size, structure and scope of government. . . .Binder skillfully traces America’s circuitous path from a gold and silver standard to a fiat currency, as well as the nation’s recurrent battles over centralized monetary power, from Andrew Jackson’s war on the Second Bank of the United States in 1832 to calls for ending the Fed today. But Shock Values is much more than a monetary history. Many of the most illuminating sections concern non-monetary responses to price fluctuations, such as government attempts to control prices directly by setting maximum or minimum prices."

— The Financial Times

"Shock Values is a very readable monetary history of the United States, from the Revolutionary era to the 2020s. . . .An excellent overview."

— Diane Coyle, The Enlightened Economist

"Shock Values explores how price fluctuations and attempts to manage them have shaped American democracy, analyzing examples of the disparate impacts of price fluctuations and their political consequences. [Binder] covers the colonial and Revolutionary War eras, focusing on monetary arrangements, inflation, and price controls in the colonies and the new nation."

— Journal of Economic Literature

“‘Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon,' according to Milton Friedman. Rises in price levels bedevil politicians but are frequently driven by political decisions. Carola Binder’s book ranges from the colonial era to today, chronicling Americans’ many attempts to outsmart inflation. . . .[she] gives voice to critics whose ideas, in an age of high deficits, should be heard."

— The Wall Street Journal, Best Books of 2024

"Inflation expectations can’t be separated from political views. This is true now and, as Binder’s book shows, it’s been true for over two centuries."

— Forbes

"Binder’s book contains many fascinating insights into the events and misconceptions that led to the Great Depression…Carola Binder’s vast and exhaustively researched history offers insights for the monetary historian and for the policymaker who needs to understand the nature of inflation."

— The Independent Review

From the Publisher